Accessibility features for the one handed
March 23, 2019 11:02 AM Subscribe
For the foreseeable future, I will be limited to one arm/hand while using my computer, and the hand I have access to is not my normal mouse/trackpad hand. I would like to know as much about the accessibility features that might be of use to me. I'm on Mac OS X 10.14.2.
Major pain points so far have included selecting chunks of text with the mouse (poor aim, and sadly applications like Kindle don't allow you to hold down shift and use arrow keys to select text by default), awkward key combinations for keyboard shortcuts, and the awful slowness of hunt and peck typing with one hand.
Major pain points so far have included selecting chunks of text with the mouse (poor aim, and sadly applications like Kindle don't allow you to hold down shift and use arrow keys to select text by default), awkward key combinations for keyboard shortcuts, and the awful slowness of hunt and peck typing with one hand.
Do you know about sticky keys? It should help with keyboard shortcuts.
posted by bring a tuba to a knife fight at 11:45 AM on March 23, 2019
posted by bring a tuba to a knife fight at 11:45 AM on March 23, 2019
It it possible to obtain a touchscreen? Text selection can be done with some decent accuracy with just a fingertip.
posted by porpoise at 12:16 PM on March 23, 2019
posted by porpoise at 12:16 PM on March 23, 2019
It's easier to use a mouse with the wrong hand if you reverse the mouse buttons under Settings>Control Panel>Mouse (or the equivalent under your OS). Then the main clicking finger will be the forefinger on the wrong hand, like it is normally the forefinger on the normal hand. This is more intuitive than just trying to operate your mouse with the wrong hand, without changing the buttons.
Likewise, you could buy a mouse designed for the wrong hand, so it's shaped better for that hand than your old mouse is.
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:56 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Likewise, you could buy a mouse designed for the wrong hand, so it's shaped better for that hand than your old mouse is.
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:56 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Like Jim says, reverse the buttons so your index finger still does the same click.
On top of that, if you can afford it, get a roller mouse - the ones that have a ball on top that you roll with your thumb. At the very least test-drive one. My non-dominant thumb seems less...non-dominant than the other fingers. Plus, since it's a completely new set of motions, your brain doesn't have to try and re-map motions you already have inverted muscle memory for (in your dominant hand).
This is all conjecture on my part, but based on having been forced to become a left-handed car wash installer for a few months following my right forearm being rolled over by a truck.
posted by notsnot at 1:33 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
On top of that, if you can afford it, get a roller mouse - the ones that have a ball on top that you roll with your thumb. At the very least test-drive one. My non-dominant thumb seems less...non-dominant than the other fingers. Plus, since it's a completely new set of motions, your brain doesn't have to try and re-map motions you already have inverted muscle memory for (in your dominant hand).
This is all conjecture on my part, but based on having been forced to become a left-handed car wash installer for a few months following my right forearm being rolled over by a truck.
posted by notsnot at 1:33 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
I had to switch hands after my dominant hand index finger and thumb over-suffered from repetitive motion injuries, complete with pain shooting up my arm into my shoulder and neck. Great fun, let me tell you.
The two biggest things that have helped have been switching my mouse to the wrong hand, and reversing the keys so I'm still index finger clicking with the index finger, and using Google Docs talk-to-text feature. There are a couple limitations, like punctuation marks that you can't dictate, but overall, it's fabulous.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 2:14 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
The two biggest things that have helped have been switching my mouse to the wrong hand, and reversing the keys so I'm still index finger clicking with the index finger, and using Google Docs talk-to-text feature. There are a couple limitations, like punctuation marks that you can't dictate, but overall, it's fabulous.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 2:14 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
If "the foreseeable future" means "forever" and you're willing to spend some money, there are a few more options that you have, although this also partially depends on what hand you have access to.
Many people recommend Dragon's dictation software; in my experience Dragon had a few features that I liked -- voice scrolling was the big one -- but as actual dictation software it didn't have a lot to recommend it over the included OS X dictation. The big drawback for me was that, as far as I could tell, Dragon didn't let me dictate obscenities. (OS X dictation does. I feel like there's probably also a way to replicate scrolling by voice but I haven't played around with the accessibility options enough.)
Depending on what you need to do with a mouse, you might consider a specialized MMO/gaming mouse, the kind with a grid of buttons on the side for your thumb -- this is the part where handedness matters, because there are, as far as I am aware, no left-handed gaming mice currently in production, although Razer used to make one. You'll have actual options if what you need is a right-handed mouse. I haven't been able to try this myself, but what a lot of people do, apparently, is remap the thumb buttons to things like arrow keys for accessibility purposes. I hear it helps.
Typing one-handed is a problem, yeah, but it gets better with time. As someone who has been typing with one hand all my life, I'm not going to win any typing contests but I can do about 30-40 wpm on a standard QWERTY keyboard. OS X also has a bunch of alternate built-in keyboard layouts, including one-handed Dvorak layouts (one for each hand), which are theoretically supposed to reduce the distance your single hand has to travel and thereby increase your typing speed. I've never tried it, but it is a thing that exists. (I am definitely seconding turning Sticky Keys on, though, no matter what layout you go for.)
But if you seriously want to throw money at the problem -- like, you're going to be typing one-handed for the rest of your life and you want to invest in this -- the keyboard you want is a single-handed Maltron keyboard. Even though the site does not say, I can vouch that they work on OS X (minus a few of the special keys) because I am using one right now to type this and I am still learning to use it but I can already tell that this is going to be an improvement. They do, unfortunately, cost about $500 new, but if you stalk Ebay patiently, you can find them used for about $200. Make sure to get the USB model and not one of the old PS/2 models. They may look weird, but they are amazing.
posted by sineala at 2:40 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Many people recommend Dragon's dictation software; in my experience Dragon had a few features that I liked -- voice scrolling was the big one -- but as actual dictation software it didn't have a lot to recommend it over the included OS X dictation. The big drawback for me was that, as far as I could tell, Dragon didn't let me dictate obscenities. (OS X dictation does. I feel like there's probably also a way to replicate scrolling by voice but I haven't played around with the accessibility options enough.)
Depending on what you need to do with a mouse, you might consider a specialized MMO/gaming mouse, the kind with a grid of buttons on the side for your thumb -- this is the part where handedness matters, because there are, as far as I am aware, no left-handed gaming mice currently in production, although Razer used to make one. You'll have actual options if what you need is a right-handed mouse. I haven't been able to try this myself, but what a lot of people do, apparently, is remap the thumb buttons to things like arrow keys for accessibility purposes. I hear it helps.
Typing one-handed is a problem, yeah, but it gets better with time. As someone who has been typing with one hand all my life, I'm not going to win any typing contests but I can do about 30-40 wpm on a standard QWERTY keyboard. OS X also has a bunch of alternate built-in keyboard layouts, including one-handed Dvorak layouts (one for each hand), which are theoretically supposed to reduce the distance your single hand has to travel and thereby increase your typing speed. I've never tried it, but it is a thing that exists. (I am definitely seconding turning Sticky Keys on, though, no matter what layout you go for.)
But if you seriously want to throw money at the problem -- like, you're going to be typing one-handed for the rest of your life and you want to invest in this -- the keyboard you want is a single-handed Maltron keyboard. Even though the site does not say, I can vouch that they work on OS X (minus a few of the special keys) because I am using one right now to type this and I am still learning to use it but I can already tell that this is going to be an improvement. They do, unfortunately, cost about $500 new, but if you stalk Ebay patiently, you can find them used for about $200. Make sure to get the USB model and not one of the old PS/2 models. They may look weird, but they are amazing.
posted by sineala at 2:40 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by jessamyn at 11:37 AM on March 23, 2019