Dragon and Thunderbird — more cool stuff

I have to amend my previous post about Dragon and Thunderbird — I found another toolbar extension that lets you access your folders vocally too, without having to use the sidebar, once you’ve set it up. Quick Folders adds a new toolbar, to which you add folders from your sidebar (or create new ones). Using the mouse commands, drag the folders from the sidebar into the new toolbar. For filling new folders, drag messages from your inbox or wherever to the folder on the toolbar. Or, you can highlight the message and say “Message,” “Move,” “Recent,” then your folder. (You can also, of course, create a Vocola shortcut.) Now, you should be able to speak the folder tabs — for example “1 Sent,” “2 Drafts,” etc., and get instant access. Now you can even hide the sidebar.

Equal opportunity one-handed typing software

If a Maltron or BAT one-handed keyboard isn’t available to you (particularly in a school, as funding cuts are increasing at least where I am), here at least is a nice balanced one-handed typing tutor. It has options for both QWERTY and Dvorak, for left and right hand. Now teachers have NO EXCUSE for not exposing a one-handed student to at least Dvorak. However, I do strongly urge you to get the smallest keyboard you can find, with decent key action if possible. “Mini” is usually smaller than “compact.” There are also transparent Dvorak stickers that allow you to have both layouts on the keys at the same time (so, again, no excuse). The tutor download is here: http://www.typingstar.com/

Utter Command: impressed first impressions

Kim Patch has asked me to take a look at the aptly-named Utter Command by Redstart Systems, a voice command add-on for Dragon NaturallySpeaking that comes with commands already built in. I wouldn’t be able to use it, because it only works with the Professional versions of Dragon 8 through 10, not Preferred. However, I strongly recommend visiting their website regardless, because it’s well done and just excellent technical reading by itself if you’re an aspiring self-taught geek like me. Nice and low-key and well argued — almost exhaustive, in fact. And who knows — if you have a Pro version of Dragon and sufficient funds and want ready-made commands, you might be persuaded.

Particularly eye-opening is its chart comparing the number of steps for an action by input device: keyboard, mouse, Dragon alone, and Dragon with Utter Command. You can see charts for such common tasks as moving the mouse or browsing the Internet. (Internet Explorer is the default for their chart, but Utter Command has a demo for Firefox too.) Right there is the reason for any add-on command program whatsoever — seeing exactly how many utterances can add up, fast, especially with programs that Nuance only partially supports or with unsupported, heavily Java or Flash applications. (*singsong* “Oh Mouse Grid…”) Seriously, it looks like Utter Command could allow you to scrap the Mouse Grid altogether if you wanted. Solitaire, anyone?

You can also download a tutorial directly from the website, so you can get a feel for it before you decide to buy it. This is a particularly good thing because some of the commands aren’t structured in the way that you’re used to — these are known as human machine grammars, rather than natural language commands. The various slides and videos explain this. I hadn’t thought about it, but their explanation of why certain syntaxes can be inconvenient for commands makes a certain amount of sense as far as improving accuracy. Really, Redstart needed to be eavesdropping when Nuance introduced the maddening new “Cut <word>” shortcut in Dragon 10, which I have happily disabled with the service pack. I can now freely “Cap <words>” again without words being axed, but that service pack wasn’t a moment too soon. “<Word> cut” would’ve made a lot more sense there, Nuance. Thankfully, though, you can still use natural language structure if you want for a lot of things. I don’t think I’d want to give up natural language entirely.

If you don’t feel like reading, they have video tutorials for almost every aspect of the program, which speak for themselves. You can also find these on YouTube. The website also supplies you with a list of common commands. I won’t go into all of them — most of them are standard macros. However, depending on your needs, a few look particularly intriguing.

1. The “3 minutes break” command will apparently turn off your microphone, wait 3 minutes, and then turn the microphone back on. This command is valuable for those of us who can’t always press keys to turn the microphone back on. You could always put the microphone to sleep and then wake it back up, but the microphone is then still listening for the “wake-up” command and, depending on your microphone sensitivity, this command can be triggered accidentally. I don’t know if the 3 minutes can be increased to, say, half an hour or more, but if so, this could be quite useful.

2. The “word screen down return” command says it can let you scroll the page of one document, but keep your cursor in the other.

3. You can also change media player tracks even if your focus is in another program. (Yes, you can listen to music while dictating.)

4. I swear I saw something that implied you could turn the microphone on by voice.

Also well done is their Community section, covering everything from sharing user commands to troubleshooting. This could be invaluable for Utter Command users — what SpeechWiki was to Vocola before it disappeared. Nice move.

From what I’ve read, the makers of Utter Command have themselves very well put together. Their website is a huge point in their favor, including explanations of human machine grammar, research papers, and item by item comparisons. Furthermore, I like that they included videos and brochures directly on the website, so you could actually see how it works before committing to a purchase. (Nuance’s flashy little pitch of Dragon 10 still irks me for not explicitly listing its native limitations with Firefox; it borders on misleading. I don’t care if the respective programmers haven’t figured it out yet — well, I do, but it’s understandable — but at least tell us that we still need Mouseless Browsing if we want to do pretty much anything reliably.) This program is out of my league for several reasons, but I respect a product that’s tempered with communicated research and explanation, not just hyperbole or “we’re better than so-and-so.” I appreciate their time and effort and wish them well.

Why can’t people read?

It really, really irks me when professionals can’t even be bothered to look at what they’re describing. The Assistive Technology Lending Library at Temple describes the one-handed Maltron keyboard this way: “Besides the standard QWERTY layout, the Maltron has its own layout (with two letters on every key) created to minimize movement even further. Press a button at the top to switch between the two layouts.” The one-handed Maltron has no QWERTY — the layout is one-handed Malt, hence the name. Those are NUMBERS on the keys, genius — the little red button lets you use the letter keys as a numeric keypad. UPDATE: Their site has been corrected.

TypeMatrix: a possible stick keyboard

NOTE: This is a conjecture, not a review, but it looks promising. (If you’re wondering how I figured this, I brought up the full-sized image of the keyboard and waved my typing stick in front of the screen.)

Every once in awhile, something deliberately designed for two-handed people looks as if it could be appropriated by people who aren’t. The TypeMatrix keyboard (especially the 2020, their old version) might be one of those things. It is NOT a viable one-handed keyboard because the alphabet is split, with the large middle keys making it impossible to type centered. However, it just might work for one-fingered or stick typing with Sticky Keys enabled. (By “stick” I’m thinking of one strapped to the hand, because it’s the only kind I’ve used. I don’t know what the ergonomic requirements are for a mouthstick or headstick; you’d be a better judge of that.)

For starters, the TypeMatrix looks slightly more compact than a standard keyboard — maybe a little smaller than a laptop keyboard. It also appears to use scissor switches like a laptop keyboard, so the key action might not be too bad. While the split QWERTY design would mean a few lifts of the stick, the reach would be a small one. The reach could be mitigated further by the use of word completion and shorthand expansion, setting your system to a one-handed Dvorak layout, or both.

Furthermore, the reach is not entirely a bad thing for stick typing. I say this because the center keys that separate the alphabet are quite useful — large Enter, Tab, Space, and Backspace keys. There are two Backspace keys, bordering either side of the alphabet on the inside. Likewise with the Space keys. The Shift keys are located on the outer edges of both sides, and are large. The Control, Alt, Caps and Function (for activating the numeric keypad assigned to the letters on the right-hand side, and thus Mouse Keys) are grouped in the bottom left-hand corner. I don’t know if the Function key sticks, but I imagine it would have to. The top row of function keys is pretty much your standard arrangement. My only quibble is that it would be a pain to end a sentence with a word ending in a left-hand letter — the punctuation, of course, is all on the right-hand side. However, a one-handed Dvorak layout might prove more conducive.

In short, the TypeMatrix has definite possibilities, but I can’t afford to try it. (The old version, however, is on sale at their website for $50 if you’re feeling adventurous. If someone has used the TypeMatrix as a stick keyboard, I’d like to hear how it is.)

NVLD and touch

There’s only ever been one person who asked me if I consented to be touched. I don’t mean romantically; I’m not inclined that way. (I think of The World According to Garp every time I say that.) This was just your standard friendly kind of thing — the sort of touching that people do unconsciously, and that most people don’t seem to mind.

And — for the most part — it’s not that I mind either. After all, needing physical help means that you have to develop a tolerance to certain kinds of touching. But it’s different when context enters into it, and this kind of blithe, unthinking touch is nothing if not context.

I should mention that I’m not accustomed to casual touch, and, true to stereotype, stiffened and pulled away when I was growing up. Much of this was physical; I dislike being patted because the sensation is too quick and hard and percussive, especially since I’m very thin. Some people have heavy grips, and that sensation of being “pulled into” a hug throws me literally off-balance and I end up nearly falling. But more than this, it depended on who was doing the touching. For reasons I won’t go into, I simply completely distrusted the people doing the patting and embracing when I was growing up; it was false to me, much like the social code of “how are you” that didn’t really want to know how you were.

Nowadays, I know a woman who reacts to me as she would to a child in the group that she runs, patting me on the head out of nowhere, which makes my skin crawl. Worse, her hand is heavy, and one day she kept patting me on the arm — the left one, which is fairly spastic — and it took me 10 minutes afterward to make the muscles let go. This, while well-meaning (if condescending), is also a false kind of touch precisely because it’s condescending — it’s meant for children, and I am not a child.

The person who asked my permission had an honest touch. We had been talking on the phone, and I had mentioned in an offhand way that some things in my life were starting to wear me out. They were quiet for a moment, then said, “I wish sometimes that I could put my arm around you and tell you that you’re worthwhile, but I got the sense that you… wouldn’t want me to.” Then there was a hesitation, as if waiting for me to agree or disagree.

I didn’t know how to do either, I was so taken aback. Here was someone who didn’t assume that my characteristic blank face necessarily meant aloofness. They were actually giving me a chance to correct their impression of me, knowing that my body language might unintentionally be incongruent. Furthermore, here was somebody who actually explained what that kind of touch was for — not in a deliberate or didactic way, but just telling me their intention: to wish well, to comfort.

So, awkwardly, I replied that I wouldn’t mind. And I did want it — to know how a thoughtful, purposeful touch felt, a touch that wasn’t just a social nicety. The next day, as I was sitting down to class and arranging all my equipment around me, I felt them stand behind me and then place a hand on my back. They gave me a moment to register it, and when I didn’t pull away, lightly moved their hand back and forth. And it felt wonderful — I could feel some of the upset draining from my body. I felt almost drowsy, even though it only lasted a few seconds.

Of course, to ask permission every time would render things stilted and possibly ridiculous. But to have that introduction — to have someone respect your customs — is, I think, absolutely necessary in order to become acquainted with others’ more physical customs.

On assistive tech specialists and “help”

Why is it that people persist in being “helpful,” well after you’ve made it clear that you already found something that works for you?

I was thinking about the process of my internship in grad school. It was already making me nervous because I had never tried to use any of my equipment in public before, and it was taking a while for the Student Services office to figure out how to “lend” their copy of Dragon to the place I’d be interning for. But at least, I thought, I’d explained to my supervisor and Student Services that I’d be bringing my own keyboard with me, and my supervisor seemed to have no problem.

Ironically, it was Student Services who seemed not to have gotten the message. Part of the reason it took so long to establish my accommodations was that they kept calling me and the supervisor with recommendations that were absolutely not doable. The coordinator seemed quite insistent that I let her order a 508 keyboard from Temple’s lending library. A 508 keyboard is your basic flat two-handed membrane/rubber dome keyboard, except that it’s wired to toggle one-handed typing by holding the spacebar and mirroring the other half of the keyboard. When I told the coordinator that I would definitely be bringing my own, she replied, “And you can’t use the 508 why, exactly?” As if I were being unnecessarily obstinate. So, my nerves becoming increasingly shot, I told her.

1. Any flat keyboard causes my fingers to go into spasm. My hand doesn’t bend or stretch that way anymore. The force required to press a rubber dome would likely hasten the process.
2. Even if I didn’t get spasms, there’d be no way that I could touch type on the thing anytime soon. I haven’t so much as touched a QWERTY keyboard in years. My visual spatial skills are terrible, and trying to mentally flip the image of a keyboard I haven’t used for years would frustrate me to no end.
3. My thumb is not strong enough to be used as constantly as it would have needed to be.

Conversely, the Maltron layout is stored in my muscle memory, and it doesn’t give me spasms unless I’ve been typing for way too long, which doesn’t really happen. If I need to, I can reach over and press a thumb key with my index finger. Furthermore, it’s mine — no work required on the part of either my supervisor or Student Services. If Student Services wanted to be helpful, they could have borrowed a Maltron from Temple so I wouldn’t have had to carry mine back and forth.

Assistive technology is a personal decision, and your client won’t always fit the cookie-cutter. I don’t know whether the coordinator disregarded everything that was in my medical file, or whether they just needed someone to test the 508 keyboard, but the amount of worry generated was completely unnecessary, considering that THE ACCOMMODATIONS HAD ALREADY BEEN MADE — BY ME.

Mouseless Browsing and Dragon: how to open links in new tabs

Opening links in a new tab with Dragon is a useful function, and can be done through Mouseless Browsing. You can do this with or without Vocola, but the Vocola command is a lot quicker.

With Vocola: Go into the mouseless browsing configuration and make sure the postfix key for opening links in a new tab is the plus sign (found under the Keys menu) and the modifier key is Ctrl (found under ID types). Then edit your Firefox voice commands by adding the following script, where 1..1000 corresponds to the link number you want to say:

Open 1..1000 new tab = $1{+}{Ctrl+Enter};

Without Vocola: Go into the mouseless browsing configuration and make sure the postfix key is the plus sign, and the modifier is Ctrl, as above. Then, say “press [number] plus-sign.” Then, say “press Control Enter.”

Maltron keyboard research and trivia

A recent comment on one of my posts reminded me to dig through my bookmarks — a while ago I’d stored some interesting tidbits about the Maltron keyboards but forgot to post them. So, some links.

“QWERTYUIOP? Lillian Malt Has Discovered A Better Way” — This is a People Magazine article from 1977, describing the two-handed Maltron keyboard and its use with electric typewriters. The wording clearly shows the article’s age (cringe), but it’s interesting all the same.

Maltron research papers — On this page are research papers written by Stephen Hobday and Lillian Malt, all of which deal with the two-handed keyboard. I would love to see the papers for the one-handed or mouth stick keyboard.

World record for one-handed keyboarding — At the bottom of this page is a mention of Diana L. Erickson, who set a world record in one-handed typing on a Maltron one-handed keyboard: 85 words per minute. Stan Allen has posted a more complete article in his comment on the one-handed keyboard review.

“Rewriting Rules to Make Keys a Work of Art” — This article briefly mentions the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s acquisition of a one-handed Maltron keyboard for its Department of European Art and Sculpture. The writer doesn’t seem to think much of it, and he’s right, compared to the health benefits versus the aesthetic — but I have things to say in a later post about that, because he’s not totally right.

Maltron keyboard on Wikipedia — The Wikipedia article intrigues me because of the dates — from that article, it sounds like the one-handed keyboard might have been invented first. Unfortunately, I don’t have the book cited as the source for that particular claim. I’ll have to look in the library; it sounds interesting. Perhaps the one-handed keyboard got glossed over as a mere “springboard” into the more common two-handed keyboard. Argh. Hate when people do that — as if being used by a smaller number of people makes it any less of a brilliant invention.

Accessible email: Mozilla Thunderbird with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10

UPGRADE/UPDATE NOTE: This post refers to version 2. See my post on Thunderbird 3.

You may have noticed that, thanks to Google’s new “improved” code, the buttons in the Standard Gmail interface are now completely buggered, which is to say you can’t speak them. You can tell Dragon to press some of the keyboard shortcuts, but not all. For a while I used Gmail in basic HTML view, which meant that I could at least access the buttons, but I couldn’t use any “mailto” links or even empty out my trash folder.

Now, if you have Vocola, you can make voice commands out of Gmail’s Standard keyboard shortcuts, especially if you use the Google Labs custom keyboard shortcut option. I have Vocola, but I didn’t feel like creating voice commands for this. I like to see how I can work with existing things before I do any adding or tinkering. So, on a hunch, I decided to download Mozilla Thunderbird 2. Dragon contains basic commands for this, such as to compose or select a message, and it gets better. With a bit of customizing, Thunderbird gave me an e-mail interface that was as vocally accessible as HTML view in Gmail, but that offered the full functionality of Standard view. (Even the dialog boxes in Thunderbird are accessible.) All you have to do is add your Gmail address and password to Thunderbird’s settings, and you’re good. Just follow the prompts.

Vocal access to Thunderbird is provided by all of the menus and toolbar buttons, which are structured in exactly the same way as they are in Firefox. That is, you can right-click the toolbar and say “customize,” and from there drag-and-drop any buttons you want. You also have the option of text and icons, text only, or icons only. To get the most functionality out of Thunderbird, you’ll probably want to download the Custom Buttons add-on for Thunderbird, because it will give you many more voice shortcuts than what the program comes with. After arranging the default buttons and choosing additional ones from the add-on, I can access the following things by voice:

Get Inbox (add-on)
Write
Address Book
Reply
Reply all
Forward
Delete
Junk
Print

Skip Trash (add-on, allows you to delete a message without sending it to the Trash folder)

Read (add-on, allows you to read a highlighted message without saying “press Enter”)

Detach Attachments (add-on)

There’s also a button for emptying your trash, but I didn’t download that one because I don’t need to very often and you can also get there by saying “File,” then “Empty trash.” There are also a lot more buttons that come with Thunderbird itself, but I don’t use them. You’ll just have to take your pick. There are also buttons for your address book, all vocally accessible too. I won’t reproduce them all here. Also, chat around the View menu and see which layout is most convenient for you.

To read a message, you can go through the list by saying “Next/Previous Message”, then saying “press Enter” or (if you have the button) “Read.” To switch between the side folders and your inbox, all you have to do is say “Tab” and an arrow key to get to the folders, and if you have the Get Inbox button, just speak it to get back to your inbox.

ADDED: It’s easier just to download Quick Folders.  Quick Folders adds a new toolbar, to which you add folders from your sidebar (or create new ones). Using the mouse commands, drag the folders from the sidebar into the new toolbar. For filling new folders, drag messages from your inbox or wherever to the folder on the toolbar. Or, you can highlight the message and say “Message,” “Move,” “Recent,” then your folder. (You can also, of course, create a Vocola shortcut.) Now, you should be able to speak the folder tabs — for example “1 Sent,” “2 Drafts,” etc., and get instant access. Now you can even hide the sidebar.

To make Thunderbird work with the “mailto” option, you can do several things. If you’re using Firefox 3, you can go to Tools — Options — Applications, and check for Thunderbird under the “mailto” drop-down. If it’s not there, browse for it. You’ll end up with the file path, then Thunderbird.exe.

Alternately, you can go to Control Panel — Internet Options — Programs, and choose Mozilla Thunderbird under “e-mail”. Regardless of which way you do it, if you have Firefox, enter about:config into the address bar and make sure the following Booleans are set to true by searching for and double-clicking them:

network.protocol-handler.expose.mailto
network.protocol-handler.external.mailto
network.protocol-handler.warn-external.mailto

If you don’t have the string network.protocol-handler.app.mailto then you can add it. Just copy and paste it from here. Then, go into about:config and right-click somewhere. Then choose “new string.” Paste the string. After you create the string, it will prompt you for Thunderbird’s location. In Windows XP, this is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe.

It’s possible you might not have to do all this to get it to work — in my case, it was just that a couple of values had been false. It’s still a good idea to check about:config just in case.

All in all, I like Thunderbird much better than the Internet-based Gmail. The interface is cleaner, and I didn’t have to write any new commands. I’m a minimalist, so I just have the boring gray background, but if you want something more lively Thunderbird has several themes for you to choose from on the add-on site.