[laptop-accessibility] Touchpad is not accessible friendly

[David K Parker]

I'm not really speaking out for myself, but trying to raise the awareness
level of people developing technology. No one seems to realize that there
are disabled people with no hands, but can otherwise function fairly well
with prosthetic limbs. I'm not as concerned about companies like Apple, who
make devices that don't work without human fingers, because there are many
other companies making competing devices that do work just as well or
better. The laptop for every child project is different. They are trying to
provide technology to children that have no other choices. To alienate a
small percentage of those who have lost limbs for various reasons beyond
their control seems wrong when a simple solution does exist. Adding an
external mouse will work, but makes the device harder to use. You need more
surface area to operate, chords can easily be broke, or the mouse can be
lost. Building a pointing device into the laptop that works without
requiring skin is the obvious solution. The technology does exist.

Thanks,
David

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Greg Smith <gregsmitholpc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Lesley and David,
>
> Due to hardware and software limitations we were not able to make the
> pressure sensitive touchpad work.
> There was some support in build 711 (and possible 708) but it is not
> enabled in later builds.
>
> In short, this is not supported.
>
> I apologize that we do not have a good solution for you (assuming you
> can't use an external pointing device).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Greg S
>
> > Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:29:37 -0600
> > From: "David K Parker" <davparker at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] accessibility Digest, Vol 17,
> >       Issue 4
> > To: "Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC"
> >       <accessibility at lists.laptop.org>
> > Message-ID:
> >       <11c18ce10811231729p14e65f73ob0163e806dcea4d0 at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> > I don't know where I can go test one. I plan on buying one to donate at
> > Christmas . I thought about getting one for myself, I like the size and
> > the durability, but I won't buy a laptop that I have to plug an external
> > mouse to use. I made that mistake once before.
> >
> > On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 5:06 PM, Lesley Thacker <lesleydianet at gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> http://www.rjcooper.com/cole/index.html
> >>
> >> Would this work?
> >> on version 711, the sides of the touchpad work with with a really hard
> >> fingernail push or a stylus.
> >>
> >> Lesley
> >>
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