ATMac

One of the numerous obstacles those of us with physical limitations face is how do we perform a right-click with a one-button mouse? Those that are able to use a physical keyboard can simply hold down the control key while clicking and that will emulate a right-click. But what about those of us who can’t use a physical keyboard or have trouble using one? There’s actually several solutions out there to this problem and in this brief article I thought I’d touch on a few of the simple software solutions.

AssistiveWare’s excellent KeyStrokes make good use of “dwelling” technology that allows people to do this. With dwelling turned on you can right click and perform a wide variety of other actions without having to click your mouse button. Just open the Dwellix floating window, select what you want to do (like right clicking for example), then just hover your mouse cursor over something for a short period of time (specified by the user in the preferences panel) and the action that you have selected will be performed.

But what if you want to right-click without using KeyStroke’s dwelling technology? Well there are some solutions for this as well. One Finger Snap by Old Jewel Software allows you to perform a right-click by dwelling your mouse cursor in the same spot for a short period of time (specified by the user in the preferences panel) with the mouse button pressed down. Right-clicking is all that One Finger Snap does so there’s no need to select what action you want to perform first and it only works when holding your mouse cursor still and pressing and holding the mouse button down simultaneously. The program will even play a sound to let you know that a right-click is being performed. One Finger Snap Is a preference panel and can be turned on and off from there. I used this nifty utility in full screen games such as Neverwinter Nights and Diablo 2 and it works quite well.

There’s a also ClickNoMo from TCNoMo. ClickNoMo Works a lot like the floating Dwellix window found in KeyStrokes with a few enhancements. You can set independent click and drag times to avoid inadvertently releasing a mouse drag too soon. You can also set the program to stick on a particular mouse action for repeated double-clicking, dragging, right clicking, etc. In default mode the program will switch back to single-clicking (or left-clicking) after each action.

There are actually other solutions out there to this problem, both on the hardware and software sides, but these are the simplest and cheapest solutions that I’m aware of. One Finger Snap, in particular, has been a godsend to me in situations where the KeyStrokes floating window is hidden by a full screen application (like a game for example).

- Paul Natsch

In the July - August ‘08 issue of MDA’s QUEST Magazine, there is an interesting article in the QuestTech section about Orlando Valle, a young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and the specialized digital photography equipment he uses for a middle school digital media course. Of particular interest is the motorized pan & tilt mount (also available in a switch accessible version) that allows him to move the camera through a simple remote. For anyone with mobility impairments and an interest in digital photography the article is a pretty cool read. 

Website: QUEST Volume 15, Number 4, July - August 2008

- Joe Barnick, AssistiveGaming.com

Cepstral have announced version 5 of their text-to-speech voices, but I have found little detail about the improvements. The following quote is from the website:

Version 5 is finally here, and it includes improvements to voice quality and engine efficiency.

This is a paid upgrade with the usual price of US$30 per voice reduced for any voice you already have a license for. When I entered the license information for the US “David” voice that I own I was informed that the upgrade price would be US$10 but no general upgrade prices have been announced, so other voices may cost different amounts to upgrade. If anybody has further information, please leave a comment.

Website: Cepstral Text-to-Speech

- Ricky Buchanan (still working on my health mostly, but couldn’t resist posting this!)

Today AssistiveWare released KeyStrokes 4.1, an update to their on-screen keyboard application for those with physical impairments and graphic tablet and touch screen users:

Version 4.1 is now Universal Binary, offers enhanced compatibility with Spaces, and on Leopard provides automatic layout switching when the user changes the keyboard layout in the Mac OS X Input menu. Also included is a newly released LayoutKitchen 2.1.1 layout editor, which allows users to design their own on-screen keyboards.

The full press release can be found here. 

It is great to see KeyStrokes is now a Universal Binary and has improved support for Spaces, Leopard’s built-in virtual desktop manager. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I have never messed around with Spaces. Though with this new compatibility, I guess I am going to have give it a try now. 

- Joe Barnick, AssistiveGaming.com 

Awhile back, Mac OS X Hints (via MacWorld online) posted an awesome article on how to get the most out of Leopard’s built-in screen sharing: 

First, here’s a potentially easier way to share the screens of other Macs on your network. First, realize that the screen sharing feature is just an application. It resides in /System/Library/CoreServices, under the tricky name of Screen Sharing. Find it now, and drag it onto your Dock, or into your sidebar, or your toolbar—whichever you prefer for quick launch access.

Out of Leopard’s 300+ new features, the ability to remotely view and control any Mac on a local network (including 10.4 machines) is easily my favorite. With three Macs in my household, such things as opening applications on another computer or helping a family member cajole Word into behaving used to be a major pain, as they entailed either unwiring me from my web of AT paraphernalia and wheeling me to said computers, or telling someone step by step what to do and then sending them off, hoping for the best. Now, thanks to 10.5’s screen sharing, I can control all the Macs on my network from one computer, as long as they are awake. From simple things like opening iTunes, to more complex procedures like copying mail messages between computers, practically any task can be performed just like you were sitting in front of the actual machine. Who says you can’t be in more than one place at the same time? 

Website: Mac OS X Hints (via Macworld online) - Add more power to 10.5’s screen sharing

- Joe Barnick, AssistiveGaming.com

As part of their Summer of Mac Gems series, MacWorld online profiles ScreenRecycler 1.16:

Wish your Mac had another display so you could spread out your workspace? Most Macs support multiple displays, but for those that don’t—or if you don’t want to go out and buy another monitor—ScreenRecycler 1.16 lets you use another Mac as your second screen.

This app could be quite a boon for computer games that only run in fullscreen and would otherwise block on-screen keyboards or scan panels, making them unplayable for disabled users. With ScreenRecycler, an individual could conceivably display the game on one Mac’s screen, while controlling it on another with their access software. I’m really itching to try out this setup with a fullscreen game on my 24″ iMac and KeyStrokes on-screen keyboard on my 15″ PowerBook’s display.

Website: MacWorld Mac Gems - ScreenRecycler

- Joe Barnick, AssistiveGaming.com

Guest post by David Niemeijer of AssistiveWare:

A few years ago, many people complained about the lack of a screen reader on the Mac as the biggest missing assistive technology feature. Apple introduced VoiceOver in 2005 in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) putting these complaints to an instant stop.

Following the introduction of VoiceOver a new item surfaced at the top of the wish lists: speech recognition. True, English voice commands had been part of Mac OS for a long time already and third-party developer MacSpeech had a product called iListen, which provided voice dictation. However, neither the built-in speech recognition nor iListen came close to Dragon NaturallySpeaking running on Windows only. After the Intel Macs were introduced and Parallels came up with a way to run Windows inside Mac OS X some people even started running Dragon on Windows in Parallels to dictate and then copied the results over to the Mac-side. That’s how desperate some Mac users were. Earlier this year MacSpeech brought powerful speech recognition to the Mac with its introduction of Dictate, which is powered by the Dragon engine. Case closed.

Now that a built-in screen reader and a powerful speech recognition solution are available, what is the next biggest assistive technology feature missing on Mac OS X? Please share your thoughts on this. Yes, do not hesitate, key Apple people read this blog too, so now is your time to be heard

ATMac will be going on hiatus for the remainder of June. My health is very bad at the moment and I have to put that first or I’ll just make myself worse permanently. Once I’m well enough, first priority will be on mastering my new assistive technology so I can work on ATMac without making myself worse. Then I’ll come back and tell you all about these new toys, of course!

- Ricky Buchanan, ATMac

AudialHub can convert audio files (and even the audio inside video files!) in as little as three steps:

1. Drag your files into the window.

2. Choose the format you want to convert to.
3. Click start.

The special thing about AudialHub, compared to other audio converters I’ve seen, is that it can pull audio directly from DVDs without other processing first. If you want to retrieve an audio description track (without the video) from a DVD this can save a large amount of time and computing power.

Website: AudialHub

- Ricky Buchanan, ATMac

There is a new version of the Growl notification system available with enhanced support for OS X 10.5 Leopard and other fixes. It doesn’t claim full Leopard compatibility but I’ve had no problems using all the functions on my Leopard system.

Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications.

Notifications are a way for your applications to provide you with new information, without you having to switch from the application you’re already in.

Growl notifications can be configured to appear as spoken notifications, email messages, or most commonly viewed on the screen with or without accompanying sound effects. Here’s a display of some notifications on my screen:

Some of the advantages of Growl are:

• All the programs that use it will use the same form of notification, unless you configure them to be different. So if you prefer spoken, emailed, or large print notifications you only have one place to set it up.

• Visual notifications are all in the same form, so it’s easy to train your eye to know where the most important information is. This means less confusion for low vision users.
• Growl works with many popular OS X programs, and there are Growl extras to get it to function with standard programs like iTunes and Mail.app and to announce when hardware is connected and disconnected.
• If you want a visual style not included with Growl they have a style archive, or you can even design your own style if you know how to write HTML!

I designed a Growl style for myself using large print and enlarged icons so it’s easier for me to read. You can download EasyView. Just unzip and double-click on the file to install it, once you have Growl installed.

Website: Growl

- Ricky Buchanan, ATMac