USB Flash Drives

USB ports can be frustrating for anyone - lining up the plug with the port, making certain it's facing the correct direction (help us, if it's a vertical port!) - but with paralyzed hands it's even more difficult. A streamlined design, like that of a laptop, makes for a minimal distance between the drive and the desk or table, providing even less surface area available on the drive to grasp. Thankfully, many USB flash drives have a suitable place to attach a lanyard or split ring. Of course, the split ring attached to my monkey's fist self-defense paracord creation is an exaggeration, but made for a more interesting photo.

Either a lanyard or a split ring will assist in easing the removal, but I find the split ring to give me a more solid place to insert my thumb which also helps in sticking the drive in the port. Many USB peripherals do not have ways to make them more convenient for us. But many do. There are a myriad of interesting and unique designs for flash drives and often something as simple as a binder clip can provide a larger handle on almost any USB device.

Source: Split rings are available from any department or hardware stores.
Interesting USB Drives are abundant at online retailers like Deal Extreme, Amazon or eBay.

Trackball

We conclude this series on productivity with the effectiveness of a trackball for individuals with paralyzed hands or reduced dexterity. To begin, we looked at old-fashioned writing by pen with my writing splint, examined the evolution of voice-to-text software and weighed the pros and cons of touch screens and styluses.

I mentioned in the discussion about touchscreens how complex some of the gestures are becoming for different apps and functions on various touch screen devices. The same can be said for many of the touch pads or track pads of current laptops. Many of the gestures require greater dexterity than many of us have. Thankfully, being a computer with a full keyboard, there is most often a fairly easy workaround. However, when it comes to standard input where precise navigation or movement is required I still find  working with a trackball, two-handed, to be the most effective.

In a pinch I can work quite nicely with a mouse for simple actions. I can point and click with reasonable accuracy, even if slower than I would prefer. When it comes to needing the precision of selecting an area one pixel in size, such as resizing a window or column in a spreadsheet, using a mouse is tedious to line up exactly where the cursor needs to go and hold it there while attempting to click without moving the mouse. The rocking my hand to add pressure to the mouse button until it clicks is where the mouse may be moved away from that precise spot before the click occurs. When it comes to using a photo editing program, be that Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop, precision is essential and without a trackball my photo editing would be significantly less sophisticated.

Trackballs are becoming less common and harder to find. In the last 15-20 years they began few in number, grew to a much wider selection and are now tapering off. Thankfully, Kensington is still around and still your best bet for a company that produces the best quality trackball. If you are planning on purchasing one double check the compatibility. Some of their older and best models do not play nicely with newer operating systems and some of their newer models do not play nicely with older operating systems. Read your reviews and check compatibility before you order one.

One final note. Many trackballs have more than two buttons and a scroll wheel. Some have up to seven buttons, all of which can be programmed to perform the function you want. That means if you need to be able to hold control or shift while clicking, reprogram those buttons for gaming or whatever other function you may need to make your computer work easier, you should be able to.

Source: Staples Business Centers have a reasonable selection but online is your best and most affordable source.

Touch Screens and Styluses

The series on productivity began with an old school pen in a writing splint, jumped forward to the technology of voice-to-text and this week will look at touch screens and styluses. But, the cat is out of the bag. I am not an Apple fan.

There are many reasons, and the purpose of this post is not to be a debate on brands, but a discussion about what I have perceived to be the advantages from a dexterity-disabled individual. Many of the pinch or spread gestures, multiple finger-tip gestures and even full palm-press gestures required to activate certain motions on iOS devices can be very difficult, if not impossible, to execute for me. Both Android and iOS have some built-in accessibility features but I find the Android features to be more advantageous to the dexterity and motor skills challenged. Most importantly, when you cannot perform the shortcut gesture in Android there is a workaround. From my experience and experimentation some gestures on iOS devices are the only way to perform a task or complete an action.

What I have observed with a Android devices, personally, is that there is almost always a built-in or free work around that is not cumbersome. Two examples I feel worth noting are in the Google Maps app and the OEM camera. Where a pinch to zoom gesture is required in Google Maps a tap and slide, with one finger, will perform the same action of zooming in or out of a map. The same can be said for rotating and other frequently used gestures. Secondly, the OEM camera with Android devices allows you to simply turn on a voice command that allows you to take a photo. When activated simply saying "shoot", "capture" or "smile" will activate the camera. This has enabled me to make photos from angles I would never be able to make them from with my DSLR.

I could make the photo from that angle with a DSLR, but the nice shallow depth of field it is able to produce means that accuracy of focusing is very specific and, without looking through the viewfinder, I would not be able to nail focus, such as on the tip of those little styluses above. It is my hope that my future DSLR will have Wi-Fi connectivity with a smart phone so that I can preview the photo and focus before making the photo with the DSLR. Essentially, live view of what the camera is seeing on your device's screen.

If you are unsatisfied with the Android OEM voice command camera function there are multiple free apps that will enable this function for you. There are apps available in the iTunes Store for iOS but you are going to have to pay for it. If it means you'll be able to make photos more easily, then it is worth it but, at what point do you stand against paying extra just because you are disabled? We do that far too often because there are no other options, and I, for one, am tired of it.

The main focus of this post is interacting with the touchscreens. Touchscreens are seen by many disabled individuals as a significant improvement in the ease of use of current communications technology. For many, the strength or finger stiffness required to use tactile buttons, such as those found on older style flip phones or earlier generation Blackberries, is not to be found. With touchscreens the lightest contact with the screen completes the input action you are trying to make. Sometimes, however, that input is too easy to make and with somewhat clumsy hands and poor grip on the device the wrong button may be pressed accidentally. That is why my current phone is a nice large Samsung Galaxy Note II, with a very grippy two-layer plastic and rubber case. I explored Otterbox cases but found them to be made of plastic that is too slippery. The one pictured above was $17 on eBay.

For many purposes, especially those involving the necessity for very accurate input, I prefer to use a stylus. The S Pen that comes with the Note series is specific to the device and, when withdrawn from its built-in sheath, activates many additional functions and methods of inputting data with great accuracy. I use a stylus for almost every interaction I have with our iPod Touch, the first touchscreen device we have owned, which is now used mainly for for our iOS proprietary alarm clock and a few small games. The small screen on the iPod Touch requires me to use a device that allows for greater input accuracy.

As much as touchscreens have made technology easier for many, they do have their aspects that make them imperfect for some individuals with a disability that affects their motor function. If you, as an able-bodied person, wish to experience what it is like for us try using your touchscreen device by holding it with an oven mitt on your hand that is holding the device. Then, for your input hand, tap the screen with the side of your thumb or first knuckle of one of your fingers, with your fingers curled in a loose fist. That is analogous to what it is like for someone with paralyzed hands.

Next week we will look at another tried and true input method, not mice, but trackballs.

Source: Electronics stores, eBay, Deal Extreme, and other online retailers.

Voice to Text

Continuing our productivity series, which began with my writing splint, will look at touch screens and styluses, and conclude with trackballs, we will look at voice-to-text technology.

Since 1998 I have been using voice-to-text software. It was very much in it's infancy. Version 2 of Dragon Dictate by Nuance Software was my preferred program at that time, their other being Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is what I'm using now. Dragon Dictate was a bit less capable at the writing aspect, but had greater control over cursor movement and other command functions. It no longer exists, but Naturally Speaking has integrated much of Dictate's functions.

At the time, NaturallySpeaking was designed to interpret full sentences, as it is now, but it was not terribly accurate. I even had a voice profile trained to dictate exam answers to a personal voice recorder that could later be plugged in to the computer, played and spit out my recording as text. I never trusted it because, even if the teacher or instructor could listen to the audio file, one inaccurately typed negative would have completely changed my answer. Now, one misspoken word or missed error can make for an undecipherable statement or wonderful laughing fit, as my best friend will confirm. This is especially true when chatting quickly and inaccurately, possibly after the intake of beverages that may result in reduced annunciation.

At that time, for the computer to accurately recognize what I was saying, it took at least four hours of training to start to show any semblance of accuracy and consistency. The best microphones available at the time, the one pictured above, were quite expensive and paled in sound quality to the $17 USB connected headset I'm using right now. The computers of the time were slow and it was a measly 266 MHz Intel processor with a 6 GB hard drive and probably 256 MB of RAM that first powered the software I used. The laptop I had the software installed on had a 200 MHz processor, 2 GB hard drive and likely 128 MB of RAM. To say that dictation was smooth and effortless would be a lie. After a completed phrase or sentence a pause was required to allow the auto correct box to appear with the 10 options given to choose from, hopefully one of which was what you actually said if the program got it wrong on the first try. It was tedious at times.

Now, except for pausing when I want to see what it interpreted the last thing I said was, I can speak multiple sentences without pausing and get near-perfect accuracy. In fact, the more I say and the larger the words I use, the more accurate it is. More letters means there are fewer words with those sounds and syllables so the likelihood of it being accurate increases. It really does encourage sophisticated writing which is not a problem for me.

A sluggish computer with growing software was only marginally faster than standard typing. As with so many computer-related things the data is always pushing the boundaries of the hardware. Video files keep getting bigger with the unbelievable 4K resolution that is now emerging, video games keep requiring better video cards and sound cards, additional hard drive space and other hardware requirements. Digital cameras continue to produce higher megapixel files (the megapixel race is over, please do not any longer be fooled into thinking that more megapixels means a better camera, but I digress) which requires more hard drive space. What once seemed like far more computer than you would ever need becomes laughable as inadequate within five years for most current applications.

There was a long period of time that I ceased using the software which came at the time I decided to upgrade my computer. You see, the hundreds of hours I had spent refining and updating my voice file caused it to increase in size to 8 MB. This is still in the time of 56.6 K modems and floppy disk drives. No available media could store that one voice file to be transferred to the new computer. Only 100 MB zip drives, which were outside my budget. As a result of not wanting to start from scratch, I stopped using the software for some time until I was encouraged to explore it, again.

The training time had diminished vastly, the accuracy after a mere 30 minutes of training was nearly perfect and, with a few features disabled, the hardware could keep up to the software to make for fluid writing. Now I keep the program running all the time and even flip on the microphone for a quick comment online.

I won't deny that I feel a little bit of jealousy when I think about the effectiveness of Google Voice, and even Siri for people who have never even used it before. Without any training, and only an Internet connection, these services are remarkably effective at accurately converting almost anyone's speech to accurate text. No hundreds of hours of training and refinement, just effective software. However, I have been enjoying the benefit of this technology a lot longer than most people and even those who have had smart phones much longer that I have seen amazed when I effectively use Google Voice.

Where these new technologies fail is in their ability to be customized. Dragon NaturallySpeaking can accurately insert any and all punctuation, navigate throughout a body of text or window, even add phrases specific to your needs. Three of my more common trained phrases are D700 (my camera), Help-Portrait and Jay. Without training you are most likely to get "D 700", "help portrait" and "J". By training them I save myself multiple words on a regular basis. In the case of Help-Portrait, to get those results without training, I would have to say 'cap help no space hyphen no space cap portrait. Until you get your brain wrapped around that it is a little bit confusing.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking can also be told to assume you have an accent when you begin the initial training. This way it can accurately write those words that you may not speak perfectly if English is your second language or you come from somewhere that people tend to have a strong accent. And, as much as I mourn the rapid decline of proper English usage, there is even a profile or two identified as teen-speak which can include and adapt to numerous slang terms and acronyms. There is a glimmer of hope, though, as the auto punctuate function might just assist a few people to learn appropriate places to insert dashes, commas or even a semicolon.

After 16 years of using this software my brain is thoroughly trained to use it. When I was on the verge of making a decision between upgrading my current Dragon NaturallySpeaking or switching to Windows' built-in dictation software I had a very difficult time using the variations of commands in the Windows version. I'm not saying the Windows software is not effective, but after that long of using a certain program it is well ingrained in my brain. My wife will attest, the occasional time she replies to an e-mail or text for me, that I often speak the punctuation as I do using this software when I am telling her what I would like my reply to say. The point is that if you do decide to give the software a try do your research and choose one because once your brain is trained it'll be like learning another language to switch between software. I think I have done a fairly will good job, when I think while using it, between dictating using Dragon NaturallySpeaking or dictating on my phone using Google Voice.

Source: The software can be purchased online or in most stores that sell computers. The microphone I use was purchased from DealExtreme. When searching for a microphone read reviews to see how effective it is at dictation as some are better than others for that purpose.

Plasti-Dip and Typing Pencil

Typing with curled, paralyzed fingers is no easy task without some aid. Some quads are able to straighten a finger out enough to type effectively but others are not. There are some commercially available devices designed to fit over the hand between the thumb and index finger and extend a shaft forward with which to type. As with so many things, this is another device to be dependent on and to have with you should the need to type extensively arise.

My solution has been a standard pencil woven below my index finger, over my middle finger, then under my ring finger, with the eraser toward the keyboard. As you can see by the seasoned pencil at the bottom of the photo, they show their wear and do not last forever, especially with each weaving between the fingers including holding the end with my teeth while doing so. However, it does not get more inexpensive to replace, and easy to find, than a standard pencil. I find that the grip of the eraser makes typing more fluid and causes me to slip off a key and type the wrong letter far less frequently.

I have been aware of a liquid plastic coating available for insulating wires, adding grip to the handle of tools or any other purpose a person could find for it. What I did not know is where it could be found any longer. A friend told me of his using this Plasti-Dip to coat the pencil at both ends to add grip, longevity and durability. Since I have started using it I have found it very helpful in making my typing pencils last much longer.

The major advantage of using something such as a pencil or pen to aid in typing is that they can be found virtually anywhere you need them. The top end of a pen may not be as ideal for typing but is still faster and easier on the shoulder than using the side of my thumb, as I do when no other solution is available.

The downside is that the plastic coating product is difficult to find and somewhat expensive, especially considering that when not resealed properly the whole can will harden and be rendered useless. Just make sure the can is resealed properly and this should not be a problem. It is nice that it is available in red, black, white, yellow and green. I learned my lesson when I chose black (specifically for this photograph because I thought it would look the best) not thinking that the black tip does not have enough contrast against my black keyboard which has made it more difficult to type effectively. I have become accustomed to it, though.

Source: Home Hardware on Central Avenue North, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Amazon.com and eBay.