"One Thumb to rule them all"

As my quest for software continues, I ran across this video about Mac's Switch XS software, used by Michael Phillips. Using SwitchXS with a Swifty USB device and a proximity switch, Michael works his Mac to play games, compose documents and listen to iTunes, send IM's - well pretty much everything - with the use of a thumb.

SwitchXS is a scanning software. It comes with Layout Kitchen. It can be purchased from assistiveware.com in a packaged bundle along with Keystrokes 3.6, an onscreen keyboard with word prediction - or purchased separately.

I downloaded the demos of all 3 programs and put them all together on my iBook and have had no memory issues even with 512 MB. Having never used a scanning software before, I was reluctant to even demo this, but am finding it very helpful as my speed increases. I'm using it with a switch that I hit with the side of my arm . The customization with these programs is impressive. Not only can you devise your own "keyboards" and scanning menus for particular programs, you can save and display them in a myraid of ways in each of the three programs.

Keystroke 3.6 is also an excellent stand alone program. It has a dwell feature, which I find handy. Like SwitchXS there's a 'smart transparency option, which makes the keyboard disappear so you can read what's underneath unless it's in use- handy on a 14 inch screen. There's a second vertical menu with options allowing you to use Keystrokes for mouse functions - and to turn dwell off/on. Surfing the web with Keystrokes and an electronic head cursor would be a great combo for a quad for most things.

Because I vary my computer use so much, I'm looking for a versatile combination of programs to cover some gaps I've run into. I'll continue to share my results here and if anyone's used any of these programs, let me know!

Text to speech software experiments

I receive quite a few emails from people asking me for ways to assist quads with reading. Of course, in the post below, Matt's blog has a review of a great page turner, but if you're not up to the over three thousand dollar price tag, I'll share what I do.

I'm using a Lenovo book stand and wear a headpointer to turn pages for my work materials that are not in accessible form, but for leisure reading I use books on tape and CD from the National Library for Blind and Recording for Blind. I've been using bookshare.org but the software program is glitchy for me so I need to find a text to speech program to convert it.

Yesterday I experimented with what's available on the Mac platform. I tried a demo of the newly released GhostReader yesterday. It comes with a one button way to convert a text file to audio and send it to iTunes, but its performance was disappointing. I downloaded a demo of iSpeakIt, which may work but I can't tell since the demo only allows the first 1000 words to be converted. I didn't like the voices in iSpeakIt, however so if I do buy it I'd need to download additional voices to use so I'd have enough clarity to understand the content, particularly for lengthy audio reading.

The price of either of these software packages is modest, ranging from $19.99 to $39.99 (and up with add-ons). They might work better for you than me. I'm using an iBook G4 and wonder if that had anything to do with GhostReader's performance. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else trying these programs out.

I'm also going to check out TextAloud on Windows to see if that works any better. They also have a free demo you can try out.

I keep hoping bookshare will change the software they offer to read their books since they offer a lot of great books. I've read on message boards that I'm not the only one experiencing Victor Soft as glitchy and , in my case, I emailed bookshare six months ago to report a problem and was told that I'd have to wait to get the text to speech function back until the software was changed since I had Internet Explorer 7. I recently tried again and still no go.

Another way to use bookshare as a quad is to download the books in html format, then use your head cursor to scroll down and read it online. I find, however, that it is easy to scroll down too much - but with practice it definitely improves.

You might also consider purchasing a book reader that will download bookshare books, such as Book Port, Book Courier or the new Victor Reader Stream. They range in price from $329 to $399, without accessories. They do require some dexterity, however, so it depends on what level your injury is - or if you have assistance available.

[visual description: A woman wearing a headpointer is shown turning the pages of a book. Another woman assists her by holding the book. The headpointer is worn on the top of her head and there is a rod that extends forward.]

Need an onscreen keyboard?

Click n Type virtual keyboard is a free software program for those needing alternate input.

I received an email from a quadriplegic vet today looking for something along these lines - and I've been checking them out myself -so here it is. There are commercial software programs available as well, such as Aurora suite for Windows. You may want to download a free demo here.

For Mac , Keystrokes 3.6 is an excellent onscreen keyboard with word prediction.

The word prediction feature comes in handy to speed along the input, whether you're using a headpointer , mouse, joystick or other method. Keep in mind that these programs can get a bit pricey so you might want to try to get funding for them before you take the plunge.