The Specialist Software and Equipment For Physically Disabled Users That Help Using Computers

The Specialist Software and Equipment For Physically Disabled Users That Help Using Computers:

There are alot of tools and types of software that can be used to help make using the computer easier for the physically disabled. I will be showing you some of the software and tools that I think are the most useful and help the most when trying to use a computer.

This is my first piece of equipment which is called Jouse2 Sip and Puff system. It is a joystick-operated USB mouse that is advanced and designed for people that specifically cannot use a mouse. To use this the person uses their mouth, cheeks, chin or Tongue to make the cursor move. The cursor is very accurate and the movement is smooth and fast. To make actions like right-click, left-click and double-click you would use the sip and puff features that are built into the jouse2. It can be fixed into position on almost any desktop and only requires a USB to be plugged in to work. This piece of equipment would cost you $1495 with free shipping and handling. 

This is a link that shows a person using the equipment: https://youtu.be/fFi5_ctNFl0

This is a piece of software that I found called CameraMouse. This software is a free program that you can get that allows the user to control the mouse pointer on a computer that has windows by the program using the head/eye movement to move the pointer. To click the users must first go to the setting and turn "Clicking" on then if they want to click something. For example a link, then they would have to stay looking at the link on the screen till it starts loading the page. The following is a link to a video that shows you how to use the software to control your computer with your face: https://youtu.be/X8wHcWTuMmY

This is my second piece of equipment that I found called Eyegaze Edge Desktop. This allows the user to navigate around there screen using their eyes. It uses the eyes to communicate and control the system. It has a special video camera that is mounted to the screen that observes the users eyes which then uses software to process and analyses the camera's images 60 times in a second and figures out where the user is looking on the screen. The software requires the user to take a 15 second calibration procedure, to do this the user must look at small circles that move around the screen once this is done it doesn't need doing again. The user operates the system by looking at keys that are displayed on the control screen by looking at the keys for a specific amount of time. This piece of equipment costs $10.500. The following is a link to an overview of the product: https://youtu.be/SCBvAfCUTyk 

I used this website to pick the equipment and software for the Physically Disabled: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2522955/computer-hardware/14-tech-tools-that-enhance-computing-for-the-disabled.html.

The On-Screen Keyboard & Text Readers

The On-Screen Keyboard:

The On-Screen Keyboard is something that can be used to help alot of people that have disabilities. It makes it easier because you can either use a mouse to click the letters or keys on the screen with the cursor to type text instead of using a keyboard. The other way is to have a touch screen monitor/T.V where the user can use there fingers to tap the keys on keyboard to type text.

The image above shows me using the On-Screen Keyboard to write text in paint. it also shows where I went to open the keyboard to start using it. First, you will go to the bottom left of your screen and there should be a start button as you can see on the image it is the windows symbol. After clicking the "Start" button you then click "all programs" and then find "accessories" and click that after clicking that you can find more options available for you to chose, you then find and click the "ease of access" folder which will show a few tools that can help but to get the "On-Screen Keyboard" you click the one that says "On-Screen Keyboard" then one you have done that it will pop up on the screen for the user to user either way they want.

Text Readers:

Text readers are very helpful as they read everything on the computers screen out aloud to the user so if someone has difficulties reading or have lost their vision then they can use this to know what people have sent them in or on websites e.g: Email's, internet search etc.... There are quite a few screen readers available and the one i will be showing you comes with Microsoft Windows which is called Microsoft Narrator.

The Screenshot above shows the Microsoft Narrator that I talked about above the image. As you can see there are settings that you can change with the voice like how load you want the narrator to read the things out, how fast you want them to read it out and what pitch you want it in, which ever the user prefers. To access this software you would just need to go to "Start" then click "all programs" this will then show alot of options and programs but you want to find "Accessories" click that then find "Ease of Access" where you will find the program called "Narrator". To control the narrator you need to use certain short cuts on you keyboard, the following link will have information on the software and all the short cuts with descriptions on what they do. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/choose-which-text-narrator-reads-aloud

The Specialist Software and Equipment for the Partially Sighted

The Specialist Software and Equipment for the Partially Sighted:

There are more than enough ways to help the Partially Sighted when using a computer. We should show more dedication to helping Partially Sighted people as it will allow them to work in the IT industry and make them feel useful cause they will actually doing work.

The screenshot above shows me using the Magnifier in just 1 of many ways that it has. on the right of the screenshot you can see there are some settings for the Magnifier. You can change how wide and tall you want the magnifier to be on the screen (how much of the screen is magnified). At the top of the screenshot you can see the application which is used to chose how much you want to zoom in on the screen, access the settings and what type of view you want. To move the Magnifier around the screen you use your mouse. As you can see there are 3 types of views. 

To open this application you would got to the "Start" button on your computer at the bottom left and then click "All Programs" which then will open loads of options but you want to find "Accessories" and then go to "Ease of Access which has alot of other helpful things also but you want to click Magnifier then the application will open and you can set it up to your preferred preferences,  

The following will be information on the different types of views there are:

Full-Screen Mode:
Full-Screen Mode is where the whole of the computer screen is zoomed in to what ever you have it set to. For Example: If it is set to 200% then the whole screen will be zoomed to 200%. If you have the zoom big you may not be able to see the whole of the screen at one time.

Lens Mode:
Lens Mode is what I was using in the screenshot. It is where you have a certain space that get magnified around your mouse cursor. Depending on how big you set the area to in the settings is how much of the area around your mouse cursor is Magnified.

Docked Mode:
Docked Mode is when the magnifier screen is in one position and the rest of your screen is the same size but when you move the mouse cursor around the screen it becomes magnified in the magnifier box that is in one position.

For more information you can go to this website to find out how to use it with different things and turn it on. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-xp/help/turn-on-magnifier