Shortly after posting this, I got another email stuffed with great advice from Dallas in Austin. He’s an AT specialist who suggested oversized keyboards, such as Big Keys. He also said the brother could check out key guides or keyguards, which are clear plastic sheets you put over keyboards. They come with holes you can access the keys through.
He also had a few other suggestions, like:
- A trackball, joystick or keyboard/pad mouse
- Touchscreen interfaces
- The VoiceIt! iOS app, which was designed to create understandable speech (and typing) for what might seem to be otherwise unintelligible speech
“It is sort of like Dragon Naturally Speaking for people with speech impediments,” he said. “Another idea is sort of like buffering, where commands are built up and reviewed before any action takes place. This also enables reuse of complex operations and scenarios, and meshes well with discrete, versus continuous, interfaces.”
Lastly, Dallas suggested Switch Control. “iOS has brought this, in-depth, to its users, though similar accessibility features are available on other platforms,” he wrote. “One large, well-placed switch or button (including the entire touchscreen) can control everything. This is a very time-consuming interface, however. Recipes can help.”
Wow! Thanks a ton for your specialized insight, Dallas. It’s highly appreciated!