Observations From Below: Automan's Utility Belt

Batman has his utility belt, James Bond has Q, and Supercrips like me often rely on assistive technology. Assistive Technology is any item, equipment, or software program that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities. I'm fortunate to have been born in 1990, around the time when personal computers started to propagate. I was introduced to computers in preschool when I was around 2. My teachers thought that typing out words would be an easier way for me to communicate. They brought alphabet stickers, and placed them on the keys so I could learn the keyboard layout. They also gave me a key guard to place over the keyboard that allowed me to only hit one key at a time. These aids helped, but it still didn't increase my speed, as I am still very slow at typing. My computer is equipped with several different programs to help me with simple tasks. The first one is my word prediction software called EZ Keys. One aspect of the program is that it predicts words as I spell them, so I don't have to type the word completely out. It also remembers my most commonly used words, as well as words that typically phrase well together. One drawback is that it also remembers misspelled words, leaving me to have to correct them manually. Correcting all those mistakes sometimes offsets the time I saved by actually using EZ Keys in the first place. EZ Keys is far from obsolete, and I use it primarily for its other features. ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news