Assistive Hardware

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NonProfit's picture
Posted by NonProfit on October 13, 2010 at 3:31am

Hello, this issue is not Drupal-specific, please excuse if it is misplaced. Today my wife met a programmer who has suffered a right hemisphere stroke resulting in permanent paralysis of his left arm. He expressed difficulty he was having vocationally due to his injury. Does anyone know of assistive hardware (or other resources) that I could point this person to? Thanks! -NP

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A start would be WebAIM and Knowbility

Posted by Cliff on October 13, 2010 at 12:53pm
Cliff's picture

@NonProfit, there are many different input devices available, including specially designed keyboards for people who can work with only one hand. I'm in too much of a hurry to search the Web, but the first place I would start looking would be the websites of WebAIM.org and Knowbility.org. I don't know that you would find the information you need there, but as advocates for equal access they will know the latest options available. So if you find a "Contact Us" page and send them a message, they should be able to get you to all kinds of help — perhaps even the best options for occupational therapy.

Good luck to you and to him!

AT resources

Posted by kat3_drx on October 13, 2010 at 1:12pm
kat3_drx's picture

Hi NP,

Thanks for your question! Regarding places to get assistive technologies, EnableMart and Enabling Devices are both good solid commercial vendors. Here are some computer-specific ATs that each one sells respectively:

EnableMart - http://tinyurl.com/22tcdc3

Enabling Devices - http://tinyurl.com/2abrr2q

Another great AT vendor and a personal favorite of mine, is the work of RJ Cooper, available here at his own site -

http://rjcooper.com

Here are a few computer-specific devices of his that are very useful for mobility -

Mouse button-box - http://rjcooper.com/mouse-button-box/index.html

Keyboard stand (this can help users who have more difficulty controlling typing because of being limited to one hand, etc) - http://rjcooper.com/keyboard-stand/index.html

BigKeys LX - http://rjcooper.com/bigkeys/index.html

Please contact me if you have any followup questions about any of these technologies.

-Katherine

browsers/UAs & assistive technologies resource from HTML5 wiki

Posted by oedipus on October 13, 2010 at 3:44pm
oedipus's picture

aloha!

there is a long list of rendering engines, alternate UAs, assistive technologies, and plug-ins for accessibility located at:

http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/UAs

please let me know if you find any broken links -- i put together the page a while ago, and have only sporadically checked it since to ensure the links aren't broken, mostly when i added new links, but it is the first resource i use when trying to quickly find info about "alternate browsing"

Hello & Aloha

Posted by NonProfit on October 25, 2010 at 5:14pm
NonProfit's picture

Hello Cliff, Katherine, Aloha oedipus, thanks much for your input! I had read these when they were posted but for some strange reason, failed to express my thanks. I'm certain your suggestions will be of great interest to our friend. -NP