Computer Applications Show and Tell
Coordinator: Andy Lin Center for Applied
Rehabilitation Technology Downey, CA 562/882-3664
alin -at- dhs.lacounty.gov
Accommodation for Volunteer
with Traumatic Brain Injury Jamie Arasz Prioli, RESNA ATP
Consultant 4 Morey Lane Brick, NJ 08723 732/331-5379
japrioli -at- gmail.com
Situation Mary is a 45-year old female diagnosed with
traumatic brain injury. Her brain injury is a result from an automobile
accident. Short-term memory is affected and learning new skills is demanding.
Mary is predominantly right-handed, though her right arm and hand are both
weaker than the left. She tires easily, often requiring a break after 30
minutes of any task.
Mary is currently unemployed, but recently decided she wants to
volunteer at her small church performing office work. Church staff is
supportive of her desire to volunteer and are willing to assist as needed.
The Job Mary works on a shared desktop computer
configured with Windows XP, Microsoft Office Word 2007, a standard keyboard and
standard mouse. She volunteers two - three hours per week typing letters for
office staff. One reminder letter is for individuals attending pre-marriage
classes; another reminder letter is for individuals serving as
greeters. Staff provides Mary with a list labeled as
pre-marriage or greeters. Each list contains the name,
address, and reminder date for each letter.
Factors Affecting Job Access Mary is predominantly
right-handed, but demonstrates weakness and slower typing. She does not want to
learn left-handed typing. She tires easily and must take a short break after 30
minutes of work.
The computer setup is setup as a single-user workstation
(administrator). Due to shortterm memory problems, she often forgets how to
open Word. Although a general template is available, Mary often forgets how to
access the two most frequently used forms, resulting in excessive time
wandering around the computer.
Solution First action was to add a second user (Mary)
to the computer station. When Mary arrives to work she logs into the system and
is more comfortable seeing a concrete desktop screen whenever she is ready to
start her task.
All extra desktop shortcuts were removed to reduce confusion.
Four main shortcuts are now present on the desktop: MS Word, BigTime (timer), a
template called pre marriage and a template called
greeter. Mary is able to identify which template is appropriate
according to which list is provided to her by office staff.
To increase productivity, BigTime (www.hahntech.com) was added
to the desktop as a countdown tool. BigTime is a simple to use countdown /
count up timer with voice announcements and simple features (Start, Stop, and
Reset). The voice reminder starts prompting at five-minutes and provides an
auditory cue that Mary needs to prepare for a short break. The application is
not overwhelming for Mary, and she is able to set the countdown timer for 20
minutes, take a short break, and then resume working.
Although her right hand is weaker, Mary is determined to
continue typing as she always has (five-finger). To reduce strain and extra
movement, a Kensington Expert Mouse ®Trackball now replaces the standard
mouse. Not only does Mary successfully access the trackball, but staff also
enjoys using the trackball versus the mouse. The trackball is now a standard
device for all to use at the workstation.
Results After five sessions (7 hours) Mary is now
able to independently access two templates used to type reminder letters. She
is able to independently set and reset a countdown timer that serves as a
reminder tool to take frequent breaks, increasing her ability to work with less
fatigue. The new trackball allows Mary to work with less strain on her
arm/hand.
Prior to customizing the desktop for ease of use, Mary was able
to type six letters per hour. Now that templates are within easy access and she
is working with a countdown timer, Mary is able to produce ten letters per
hour. She is able to monitor her breaks and stops before becoming excessively
tired.
Now that Mary is more comfortable accessing her templates on the
computer, office staff plans to increase Marys work as long as it is not
overwhelming for her.
Cost The cost for training Mary and customizing the
desktop was approximately $500. The cost for a new trackball was approximately
$99, and the BigTime time was $0 (freeware).
Complete cost to accommodate the volunteer: $599. Funding was
provided by the state Traumatic Brain Injury Fund.
Custom Tools to Assist a Person
with a Brain Injury that Anyone Can Benefit From Ray Grott,
MA, ATP, RET RET Project San Francisco State University
415/338-1333 415/338-1501 fax rgrott -at- sfsu.edu
This project was designed to assist a person with a brain injury
who was employed as a rehabilitation counselor. He was in danger of losing his
job because he could not keep up with the many consumers he was working with
and kept missing key deadlines and milestones. Writing case notes, requesting
purchases, and sending letters was taking up too much of his time.
Project management software was explored but was too complicated
for him. Since he was comfortable with Microsoft Excel, I developed a
spreadsheet for tracking the milestones of each consumer as they progressed
through the creation and implementation of their employment plan. Target dates
were calculated automatically from the date of first entry. Carefully utilizing
Excel's conditional formatting feature, these cells would turn yellow within 10
days of the due date and red on the due date and thereafter, until a
"completed" box was checked. Checking a "30-day extension" box would reset the
dates and coloring accordingly.
This person created sample documents for case notes and letters,
but these included all the possible options, vendors, etc. and notes to himself
in different colors. He would then go through and delete all but the desired
information. Using a product called ShortHand, I created a number of scripts
that would present him with pre-set questions to answer and lists to select
from. After he moved through the prompts, it would generate the full text. This
software was also used as an abbreviation-expansion tool for entering names and
telephone numbers in a telephone log.
Two Methods for Triggering
Macro Express Scripts with NaturallySpeaking Copyright © Alan Cantor 2008. All rights reserved.
Alan Cantor Cantor Access
Inc. alan -at- cantoraccess.com 416/406-5098
Background I tested two methods for triggering Macro
Express scripts via NaturallySpeaking while voice-enabling a complex
application as part of a workplace accommodation. The application, which is
web-based and runs in Internet Explorer, consists of approximately 30 pages,
each page with up to twenty fields and 25 hypertext links. Built-in
NaturallySpeaking commands for interacting with form elements do not work
reliably or, on many pages, do not work at all due to HTML and JavaScript
problems.
The problem Initial attempts to use the scripting
language built into NaturallySpeaking Professional Edition to develop custom
commands were promising. But as the scripting project became more complex, two
difficulties were encountered:
-
Commands that send more than eight or ten keystrokes execute
slowly. (Some of the commands send 30 or more keystrokes.)
-
A NaturallySpeaking 9.x bug makes it difficult
to script certain commands. To reduce the need to memorize commands, I chose
command names that exactly matched field labels. For example, saying
First Name navigates to the First Name field. Although
most labels appear only once in the application, 40 appear two or more times.
The straightforward way to script commands with identical names is to make them
window-specific. The scope (availability) for a command is restricted to the
window in which the command is active. Unfortunately, the NaturallySpeaking 9.5
MyCommands Editor prohibits duplicate command names for Internet Explorer
windows. Although creating two or more commands that share a name is possible,
coding them is not simple.
The workaround to both problems was to script NaturallySpeaking
commands that trigger Macro Express scripts. The Macro Express "Text Type"
command outputs keystrokes significantly faster than the NaturallySpeaking
"SendKeys" command.
Furthermore, setting the scope to Internet Explorer windows is
straightforward and reliable with Macro Express.
I experimented with two ways for NaturallySpeaking to trigger
Macro Express scripts: (1) NaturallySpeaking sends keystrokes to launch a Macro
Express hotkey macro; (2) NaturallySpeaking activates a shell command to launch
a Macro Express macro. In theory, the first method should execute more quickly,
and the second method should be more reliable. In practice, both methods worked
equally well.
Code samples Use NaturallySpeaking Professional
edition to trigger a Macro Express script nicknamed test 1 and
activated by Ctrl + Alt + T:
Hotkey method Sub Main
' Note: ^=Control, %=Alt, +=Shift
SendKeys "^%t" End Main
Shell command method Sub Main
' Note: Use /A switch before Macro Express
nickname ShellExecute
"[macro_express_folder_path]\meproc.exe /Atest 1" End Main
An Interactive Macro to
Automate the Downloading of Digitized Articles Copyright © Alan Cantor 2008. All rights reserved.
Alan Cantor Cantor Access
Inc. alan -at- cantoraccess.com 416/406-5098
The client The client is a full-time journalist and
part-time graduate student. She reads voraciously for her work, studies, and
personal enjoyment.
Her disability is low-vision. She also has computer-induced
repetitive strain injuries. Her preferred way to read magazine and newspaper
articles is to download them from the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the
Blind) Digital Library into a specific folder, rename the files, and upload
them to a portable reading device.
Difficulties She experiences difficulties downloading
articles because
- Default file names do not reflect the content of the
articles.
- Default file names do not effectively reflect how the files
relate to one another which publication, volume or issue number; or
whether the files are articles or letters to the editor.
- Web pages have extraneous links between the links to the
articles. The number of extra links varies, but usually is constant for each
individual page on the website.
- The act of downloading articles one-by-one is time-consuming
and requires high levels of dexterity and concentration.
Solution I developed an interactive Macro Express
script to automate the downloading of related articles. When the client presses
a hotkey, the macro prompts her to key in:
- The number of articles to download
- The number of tabs between links
- The name of the publication
- A description of the publication e.g., date, volume, or
issue.
For each article, the macro sends keystrokes to download a file
and assign it a three-part file name:
Publication - Two-digit article number - Description
After each download, the script increments the article counter
and sends the exact number of tabs to reach the next article link. All articles
are downloaded to in a folder in this form:
New York Times - 01 - June 2008.html New York Times - 02 -
June 2008.html New York Times - 03 - June 2008.html etc.
Cost The cost to develop the macro was about $100
plus the cost of Macro Express, which the client already owned.
Screen Reader Friendly
Find Commands for Microsoft Word Copyright © Alan Cantor 2008. All rights reserved.
Alan Cantor Cantor Access
Inc. alan -at- cantoraccess.com 416/406-5098
Client The client is a trial lawyer who is blind. His
primary access technology is JAWS. He prepares notes in Microsoft Word, and
refers to them frequently while in court. (He wears a headset to avoid
disturbing the court.)
His preferred way to navigate through trial notes is to use the
Find command. To refresh his memory or add comments about a
particular subject, he searches for a word or phrase, and uses Word and JAWS
navigation commands to zero in on the relevant part of the document.
Problems with built-in Find commands The
Find command in Microsoft Word is not particularly screen reader
friendly:
-
After initiating a search, the Find and Replace
dialog box must be closed before continuing.
-
After closing the Find and Replace dialog, the
found string is selected. JAWS does not report that it is selected, and on
occasion, the client starts typing and inadvertently deletes the selection.
-
Changing the search direction is awkward: Press
Ctrl + F, type a search string, tab to the
More
button (first time only), tab to the Search
drop-down list, change the option to either Down or Up,
and press Enter.
-
The default hotkey for Repeat Find,
Shift + F4, is cumbersome. To locate
F4, the client lifts his left hand from the
keyboard, landmarks on Esc, and counts four keys
to the right. In addition, he must ensure he is not pressing
Ctrl or Alt instead
of Shift. (Ctrl + F4
closes the document, Alt + F4 exits Microsoft
Word.)
Solution I used Visual Basic For Applications (VBA),
the built-in macro language in Microsoft Word, to develop three new find
commands: one that searches forward, one that searches backward, and one that
repeats the previous search.
Figure 1: Find forward and
Find back dialog boxes
I mapped Find back to Ctrl + comma, Find
forward to Ctrl + period, and Find again to Ctrl + /. The
three keys are side-by-side and easily located without lifting the hands from
the keyboard.
JAWS automatically reads the search direction (from the title
bar) when initiating a search. After entering a string and pressing Enter, the
dialog box closes. If the string is found, it is not selected. Instead, the
cursor is at the end of the found text when searching forward, or at the
beginning when searching backward.
The client says of the new commands: I now use three
customized macros
that let me zero in on information in half the time
using a quarter of the keystrokes.
Time to develop About 2.5 hours
RESNA
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