T9 kybd wld be gr8.

March 17, 2008 7:23 AM

Does anyone know of a manufacturer of a T9 keyboard/software for a PC?

My father is confined to a wheel chair and on a ventilator, so he finds it difficult, if not impossible, to talk on the phone. As such, his primary means of communication is IM and email. However, he's slowly finding it more difficult to type as a result of arthritis and a combination of other things. My brilliant solution is to try to find him a keyboard (or software) that can emulate T9 word recognition like on a cell phone. That will cut down the amount of typing he has to do, and I think make it easier for him to communicate. Anyone heard of such a thing? Any other ideas?

posted by moitz to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I believe that T9 requires more keystrokes than a traditional keyboard. It just has fewer keys. There may be some sort of predictive software you could use. Perhaps a chorded keyboard would be less difficult for him? Or it might be more difficult. :( Good luck.
posted by 1 at 7:33 AM on March 17, 2008

Your father is not the first person to be in this situation. The search term you're looking for is 'accessibility.'
posted by box at 7:52 AM on March 17, 2008

Googling for "autocompletion" turned up Phrase Express. I've never used it, but the Wikipedia page from whence I found it (and which also mentions some other programs) describes it as a "system-wide predictive text Windows software solution", which sounds like what you're looking for.
posted by kxr at 8:29 AM on March 17, 2008

Have a look at Dasher. It's not predictive in the way you think, but it is very accessible and easy to use.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:44 AM on March 17, 2008

Kudos to Rock Steady, who beat me to mentioning Dasher. It can enable you to type with only a single finger on a touchpad (or a hand on a mouse). They're also testing (done testing?) it with eye-tracking software.

Remember that there are other kinds of special mice out there. If you can imagine it, someone has probably already shaped a mouse like it. Even if he can't use a normal mouse due to arthritis, another mouse shape may work out. The same goes (to a lesser degree) with keyboards.
posted by mysterious1der at 10:04 AM on March 17, 2008

Rock Steady, mysterious1der, that's some seriously cool software. Bit tricky to get used to but I can certainly see that being very very useful for him in a while. Thanks!
posted by moitz at 1:44 PM on March 17, 2008