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.

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.

One-handed typing lessons

If you want to see what learning a one-handed keyboard looks like, here are links to tutorials that I know of. I haven’t used the BAT keyboard.

http://www.maltron.com/training/index.htm Tutorials for the Maltron left and right handed ergonomic keyboards.

http://www.brandonfla.com/typingtutor/download.htm Tutorials for the left and right handed Dvorak layout. Dated, but should work.

http://www.infogrip.com/bat_kybd_details.asp#documentation Tutorials for the left and right handed BAT chorded keyboard.

RSI? One handed? Avoid Lilly Walters’ writing

I have an ironic sense of humor, but I’m finding it harder to laugh about this article placement. At first I was bemused, but now I’m just irritated. What in the hell is an article by Lilly Walters doing on RSI awareness websites? As someone whose musculoskeletal problems have been further complicated by RSI in my good hand, I don’t find it funny. Do these people not read the submissions before they post them? Walters is entitled to her opinions, certainly, but from an informational standpoint, her opinions are nothing but counterproductive when applied to RSI and its risk factors, especially for a one handed person. Walters may have a right hand and two of her left fingers, but she has no clue. I want to outline some points. Please bear with me to the end of this post.

Walters begins her article by saying, “Those of us in rehabilitation therapy help children and adults with disabilities enhance their lives, increase their independence and productivity.”

First of all — WALTERS IS NOT AN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST, OR ANY MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WHATSOEVER. SHE IS A FACE PAINTER. Just look on any of her home pages. In addition, her first sentence is plagiarized from the mission statement of rehabtool.com.  Misrepresenting yourself just to sell a $50 typing manual is just a little bit unethical. So is shilling your self published books on Amazon. (So, arguably, is buying nearly every single web domain related to one handed typing. “Fanatical” is more of a word for that though, I think.)

Second, how could anyone even buy her false credential? If you were a true member of the helping professions and had ever seen someone struggling with injury, you would NOT say the following: “In our world of terrific technologies, we happily embrace the new alternatives. But there is something glaringly wrong in that circle of embrace for the one hand typist.” You would also not say this: “If one hand has good usage, then, although harder on the hands, the standard one hand QWERTY is perhaps the best choice.”  What occupational therapist would encourage you to do something that they know presents high risk?  (And who would be so melodramatic about it?)

Also, while therapists do begin by suggesting the least complicated solution and working up from there if more accommodation is needed, I don’t think any therapist would ever outright condemn assistive technology as “glaringly wrong.” They understand the importance of prevention now. They would be more likely to promote caution and steadiness — I doubt they would egg you on by demanding that you be “the fastest, most competent person.” While competency is certainly necessary, the competitiveness implied by the emphasis on speed is certainly not. ACCURACY AND COMFORT ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED. Walters may type 40 to 80 words per minute, but her manual borders on illiterate, as does her website. Typos don’t help your credibility, and it helps to know the difference between “dominant” and “dominate.” She spells Dvorak as “Dvoark” all over the place, which makes me think of aardvarks. If you’re going to badmouth something you haven’t tried, have the courtesy to spell it right.

Walters blows her cover here, and her reasoning is specious to boot. Her evangelism for QWERTY and condemnation of anything else seems rooted in several things. Foremost, she needs to push her typing manual, of course. I can only assume that’s why she lies that Dvorak cannot be found in the workplace.  Hello — get administrative rights and activate the Dvorak layout in your OS.  One-handed keyboards are portable; you will find them in the workplace if you bring them with you. Then, judging by the number of times the word “normal” is written “NORMAL” in both her manual and her many websites, as well as her declaration of “smug pride” that she doesn’t need any adaptive equipment, she’s very insecure about herself. She’s afraid of being different. That’s why she’s willing to tell you to risk your hand — she’s projecting her fear of looking different on to you by saying, “Selecting an alternative keyboard makes the user feel apart from their peer group.”

Don’t put words in my mouth — I’ll do whatever I have to to keep my remaining hand function, and I’m indebted to the Maltron and other technology for helping me do that. I was able to work with my peers in a library because I had the equipment to do so. If I didn’t have my keyboard or Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I wouldn’t have been able to do my internship. In fact, I received many compliments on my keyboard. My assistive technology enables me to be included — it doesn’t isolate me in the slightest, thanks very much.

This article does not belong on RSI websites that under any other circumstances would be advocating ergonomic keyboards like Maltron or layouts such as Dvorak, as well as speech recognition. I think the picture of Walters’ typing manual says it all: a hovering one armed Superman in a business suit and slick cheesy smile, supporting his entire weight on his fingertips, which are apparently resting on a flat QWERTY keyboard. If that posture isn’t asking for RSI, I don’t know what is.

The Integrated Keyboard, or Mousing with Maltron

The other day David Hostyk posted a very helpful comment on my “About” page concerning a program called Integrated Keyboarding. Presumably, it lets you use the letter keys to move and click the mouse cursor, a sort of more convenient Mouse Keys — a clever idea.

However, it doesn’t look feasible for the Malt layout because the motion commands are bound to certain letters, which of course are for a QWERTY keyboard. (I’m guessing it would be problematic in Dvorak also, but I don’t know.) But there is good news if you use a Maltron — you can already use the letter keys to control the mouse cursor if you want to. Simply enable Mouse Keys (left Alt, left Shift, NumLock), then press the red button under the function keys. Normally this would put you in numbers mode — making the letter keys replicate the numeric keypad — but since you’ve set the numeric keypad to replicate the mouse, your letter keys will likewise move the mouse. The directions correspond to the numeric keypad, so that you would find the direction on the letter keys looking at the number underneath. Like so:

F — left (4)
O — right (6)
M — up (8 )
T — down (2)
G — upper left diagonally (7)
P — upper right diagonally (9)
A — lower left diagonally (1)
E — lower right diagonally (3)
D — left click (5)
H — double-click (+)
- then D — right-click (- then 5)

If you want to drag or drop, reach over to the numeric keypad and press Insert or Delete, then move the cursor either by the keypad or the letter bank.

As far as Integrated Keyboarding, it still has potential. I’m wondering if it would work with an on-screen keyboard. I say that because if it did, it may enable a user to use the on-screen keyboard to control the mouse by switch scanning. There aren’t that many programs out there that let you do that — the only one I know of is from Gus Software, and it’s hideously expensive. So, if this program happens to work, you could conceivably create a Click-N-Type on-screen keyboard containing just those keys and thereby move your mouse with your switch. Pretty cool.

My “Scrabble” keyboard :-)

A kid in the library said that the keys on my keyboard looked like Scrabble tiles.  I think I’m keeping that description.  Come to think of it, the keys do kind of feel like the tiles too — smooth and cool and solid.  And I love word games; they’re comforting.  (As a matter of fact, I memorized the Malt layout by playing Boggle with my keyboard, making words with my eyes.)  Kids say beautiful things without realizing it sometimes.  I would post a picture, but I can’t get it to work. There it goes! Yay.

Review: The grail of one handed keyboards: Maltron

In the ergonomic keyboard market, one handed people are totally ignored, despite the fact that we have an even greater chance of developing RSI. After being diagnosed with numerous cumulative injuries in my good hand, which were most likely exacerbated by having to type on a standard QWERTY keyboard with it, I relied exclusively on Dragon NaturallySpeaking to access my computer. It’s a beautiful program, and I still use it for intense computer sessions be they Web browsing or 20 page papers. However, there are times and places when using your voice is not possible, or certain applications at work are not voice accessible. So what do you do, with every “split” or “natural” keyboard completely useless to you?

If you can, you save up your money until you can buy a Maltron single-handed keyboard — literally the only ergonomic full keyboard in the world for a one handed person. It was designed in 1977 by Stephen Hobday of Great Britain, and its layout was researched and invented by Lillian Malt, an expert on reading patterns. I can best describe it as the two-handed person’s contoured ergonomic keyboard, cut in half. The layout is obviously different from the two-handed Maltron; the frequency of keys for one hand will be different than for two.

The five home keys are Space ATEH on the right hand, from thumb to pinky finger. The home row in full is Space UISATEHN. Compare this with one hand on a QWERTY keyboard: FGHJ. See how far you have to stretch to get the other letters? Not so good. I fell in love with the frequency of use layout rather quickly; it’s even better than right-handed Dvorak. I confess, though — not being a “texter” — using my thumb for U and I took some getting used to, and to avoid stress I sometimes move over and use my index finger instead. If you have a larger hand span, this might not be a problem for you.

But the layout is only half of it; if it were just that, it would be just another Dvorak. The design is the other half. Not only are the keys compacted, but they are arranged in columns around the curved shape — not staggered — and the columns are recessed according to finger length, reducing the stretching required. The keyboard has a very slight slope to it, so you can rest your hand naturally on the keys without having to turn your arm to make your fingers meet them. Best of all, the keys are Cherry MX switches, which are incredibly gentle to type on — you barely have to press the key half way to generate a character. This doesn’t mean the keys are mushy or hypersensitive; you do have to make a purposeful movement, just a very slight one. After pounding on membrane/rubber dome keyboards, it’s seriously like laying your fingers on pillows.

They’ve pretty much thought of everything. Turn off Sticky Keys in your accessibility options; Maltron built it into the keyboard. The right-hand Shift, located in the thumb group, “latches,” releasing after the next key is pressed. The left-hand Shift is in the top right corner of the numeric keypad, and it locks — you have to press it again to deactivate it. I find the left-hand shift useful for selecting text, or typing in caps with punctuation. It is also useful if you use the tab key to navigate links and miss your mark; press left-hand Shift and tab backwards to your heart’s content. The left-hand control and left-hand Alt lock also, which is useful for executing a series of keyboard shortcuts or — a pleasant surprise — entering the codes for special characters. A red button by the function keys puts you in “numbers mode,” which means you can use the letter keys to enter numbers if you wish instead of the numeric keypad or the regular number keys above the letters. (Note: if you use Mouse Keys, you’ll need to deactivate that for it to work.)

In all, I’m thrilled that I found this keyboard, and impressed that Malt and Hobday troubled themselves to research one-handed data entry as well as two-handed, providing a lifesaver in what other companies would consider just a “niche market” and not worth their time or investment. This keyboard has returned a very important aspect of language to me: muscle memory. Sometimes when I think of words, I think of them in the way my fingers move to type them, and that pattern becomes the word. A mnemonic device, I guess. I can “feel” words again, and that’s worth everything.