We have two students here who have quite severe levels of cerebral palsy.
One has quite consistent speech and is able to use Dragon Dictate voice
recognition, with a Semerc Joystick Mouse. The other student uses a standard
keyboard with a metal keyguard, MS Access pack and Prophet prediction. She
also uses a joystick mouse from Semerc. She rests her hands totally on the
keyboard and has a surpringly fast typing speed, only using prediction for
long words. She also uses some of the features of Word 6
(autocorrection/abbreviation expansion) so we've been able to set up her
network area exactly the same as her home PC as our standard WordP here is
Word 6. She's still transferring her skills from an older, DOS based machine
on which she used TAP to modify the keyboard and Wordstar but she feels
she'll be more productive on the new system and itends to use the Xmas
holiday to familarise herself with it. She knows how to modify MS Access
Pack so she's experimenting with settings here. So far, both systems have
been quite successful. I suspect your students may have less manual
dexterity than ours. However I wouldn't have thought either solution would
have been successful with these two before trying them out.
* We have a few students with cerebral palsy and one, in particular
* requires specialist adaptations to access the computer. This
* particular student has no speech and little co-ordination with his
* hands.
*
* Our problem is trying to find the right equipment for this student.
* He is too capable to use a scanning keyboard program and has better
contr=
* ol
* with his mouth than perhaps a head switch. We have tried him with the
* Headpointer and Wivik (supplied by Liberator). Although he has had
* some success with this, the program kept crashing and also he had
* difficulty with keeping the puff switch in his mouth. He is presently
* using a =91chopstick=92 - (the plastic eating variety) to enter text via
t=
* he
* keyboard with the Windows Disability Access Pack to help with
* sticky keys, etc.
*
* This is one solution but I am not convinced that it is the best one
* available. So if any of you out there have had experience in this
* area or can point to other specialist organisations, then I would be
* grateful for your input.
*
* Many thanks
*
* Phil Judd & Stuart Rider
* Access Centre Technicians
*
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