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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Lifekludging a UMPC

Dave over at lifekludger test rides a UMPC to see what potential it holds for those of us with upper mobility impairments. Previously he has reviewed Tablet PC's- and it's interesting to see what benefits (or not) this smaller piece of technology holds.

As a quadriplegic, Dave uses a mouth stick. He writes:

"One of the things I experienced using a touch style computer UI was an uncanny sense of getting a bit of my lost freedom back. This is evident in two tools in particular for me, InkArt and the Snipping tool.

If you don’t realise how much of an impact a pen or pencil, (as in the physical, long sticks you hold in your hand and write with) has made on human expression, try living one single day without using one. Now multiply that by 365 and then by 25 and try it. That’s how long it’s been without being able to hold a pen and write. Now, I do hold a pen in my mouth and write but it’s limiting. The ability to scribble is just so freeing.

And being able to use InkArt to use brushes and colour and just ‘play’ with design, and do it all on my own, is something incredible...."

He also found Snippet, a program that allows one to circle important information, important. These programs and the touch capability allowed him to capture deas without typing. And:

"Bringing that freedom of drawing over into a work context, I find I’m increasingly needing to express to colleagues at work concepts and ideas and how I see projects we are working on should hang together. I’m limited in expressig these to using some app to draw objects like Visio or Powerpoint whereas a sketch on a whiteboard’s what I really need to be able to do."

This is excellent and useful information for those of us who are looking for technology to assist us in better productivity, expression and quality of life. Thanks Dave.

Click above to read his post!

1 comment:

Rosemary said...

He has a fascinating site. I read every word about his evaluation of the new eo. Great information for anyone in similar situations, I'm sure.