Recommendations for one-handed KB?

[lmccroskey]

Hello everyone.  I work for an IT department in the education field (K-12).  One of our employees has developed a condition that has essentially robbed them of the use of their left hand.  While researching keyboards that may help, I stumbled across this website.

So far I've only been able to find a few keyboards that may help us - Maltron, Matias Half-Qwerty and Frogpad2.  But I find it hard to believe that, given how long keyboards have been around and how many manufacturers there are, there would only be 3 keyboards available.  Do you know of any other right-handed keyboards on the market?  I'm also open to software solutions, but the one I tried (Limber) doesn't work reliably.  Thanks in advance.

[davkol]

ErgoDox

[xmagusx]

Maltron does a tremendous amount with disability keyboards and are probably among the best if you're looking for a hardware solution.

Alternately, software allows people to use a full keyboard but select a function key to "mirror" (ie: typing "h" still types "h", but "func-h" types "g"; "func-j" becomes "f"; "func-;" becomes "a"; etc). Some folks have had success using a foot pedal for this mirror key.

Voice-to-text software can also be quite helpful.

On the whole, though, given that the disabled community is a smaller subset of the populace coupled with the fact that every disability is unique to some degree (even if quite similar to many others), the complete solution will need to be custom tailored to some extent. This prevents a lot of economies of scale, which in turn discourages many companies from dabbling in this arena.

[Tarzan]

I know there are a few ergonomic keyboard gurus on the forum who will weigh in on your question, and I don't have any suggestions other than the ones you've listed.  However, you may want to look into software solutions in combination with hardware, something like the Dragon NaturallySpeaking package.  I have writer friends who use this software for major chunks of writing, and swear by it.

You may have already looked into software, or there may be other workplace factors that make it impractical, but I figured I'd throw the option out there.

[CPTBadAss]

Maybe The Matias Half Keyboard? Half an Ergodox might be a good idea too.

[RabRhee]

There was another post about this recently with a few varied answers. http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=47875.msg1023115#msg1023115

The one I mentioned there was the Infogrip Bat, which I discovered by buying a pair of left-hand ones off ebay for $20, but mine came without leads and I haven't hobbled together a workround to try them yet. There are a few options in different forms.

[Proword]

http://www.maltron.com/component/content/article/11.html

I've used Maltron 2 handers since the mid '80s, and a couple of years ago I bought two single handers to experiment with. 

I was very pleased with how quickly I was able to grasp it and it was only a few hours until I reached about 12 wpm touch typing.

This is me fairly early on in my learning.

I didn't go any further because I didn't need to, but I'm satisfied that you'd be hard pressed to get anything better.

If you buy a keyboard from Maltron you can get a CD with typing lessons on.  But if you buy one privately there are typing lessons on line which I used and found excellent.

http://www.maltron.com/training

Just pick your hand.

Towards the end of this little advertising jingle there is an interview with a single hand user.

I'd have to back Greystoke in the post about Dragon speech recognition.  Providing you learn to use it properly, it's excellent right out of the box.

Joe

[Proword]

Getting onto software solutions, over the past 30 years I've developed a keyboard shorthand which I use for court reporting.  It reduces keystroking by about 40%, and can be used by any keyboard, QWERTY, Colemak, Dvorak, Maltron, dual and singlehander.  It only works with WordPerfect.

My blog gives detailed instructions on how to create the unique set of abbreviations each person uses.  There's nothing to "learn" as the operator makes their own abbreviations. 

http://proword-transcription.blogspot.com.au/

Joe

[lmccroskey]

Thanks for the great input, everyone.  We currently have her using Dragon Naturally Speaking.  It's a great piece of software for most of her work, but it can't cover all the bases.  For example when she's at meetings and there is a presenter talking, she doesn't want to be talking at the same time because that's rude.  Courtesy aside, she says that the mic pics up what the presenter is saying and transcribes it.  She has the same problem while in webinars and trying to "type" into a chat box with Dragon.

The Maltron and the Frogpad 2 really caught her eye, so we'll probably go with one of those.  Like I said, I thought there would be more on the market for this sort of thing.  But xmagusx's response makes sense so I can understand why there aren't many specialized keyboards.

[Proword]

If the Dragon is covering most of her work, have your considered using it with a Stenomask?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenomask

I've not used one personally, but it might be useful.

Joe

[Proword]

"She has the same problem while in webinars and trying to "type" into a chat box with Dragon."

I have a similar "problem" sometimes, in that when I'm chatting with someone I can't go fast enough (drown them out - heheh) so I use my shorthand/Dragon in my word processor (WordPerfect) and I've made a small macro (named "copyall")which selects then copies the entire document to the Win clip board.  I then shift the focus to the chat box and paste.  When I shift back to the word processor the entire document is still selected, so as soon as I start typing my next reply, the previous text automatically disappears.  copyall can be attached to a single keystroke in WordPerfect so it's extremely quick to copy and paste from one window to the other.

Joe