MOUSE TYPING DEVICE FOR DISABLED AND/OR CEREBRAL PALSY SUFFERERS AND/OR EXECUTIVES WHO CANNOT TYPE

I developed a 1995 a mouse or headpointing software for typing using a computer - ideal for Cerebral Palsy sufferers who have problems using voice recognition. I conceived it around 1995 when i saw barney greenland a paraplegic lawyer in bulawayo Zimbabwe africa with a pen in his mouth typing by hitting the keyboard. I wrote several versions at that time, using clipper, visual basic 3 and delphi 1 I tried to disseminate it by contacting organisations in zimbabwe, uk and usa, but got pretty well nowhere The product works like this:

You have 3 windows - a-z window (AZW) , common word window (CWW), and the text creation window (TCW) the common word window has the 100 most common words (or phrases) which are used in the language operational (i.e. probably english) if the word you want is there you locate with the pointer and click - that word or phrase goes onto the end of whatever is in the text creation window (TCW). if not you choose the first letter from AZW, immediately the CWW changes to show the 100 most common words starting with that letter. (always in alphabetical sequence) if the word you want is there you locate with the pointer and click - that word or phrase goes onto the end of whatever is in the text creation window (TCW).

if not choose the SECOND letter from AZW, immediately the CWW changes to show the 100 most common words starting with those TWO letters. etc etc etc... the text is automatically put into clipboard and can be pasted into any word or email document
it would be nice to integrate the system fully with email and with the users email address book to make all that stuff easier
could also be integrated with a text-to-voice system so as to enable user to 'SPEAK" I have tested and reckon 15 words per minute is a normal rate of text production (depends also on spelling capability of user!, but helps a lot with the spelling anyway...)

system can also accept new words to be input system can scan through documents and automatically add new words , and it can also be requested to recalculate the commonality of words for the CWW. We could probably build in some stuff so that if several users are using one computer their own commonality settings can be used (like a car with 5 or 10 automatic driver adjustments).

I do not have a workable version at the moment. i would be very happy to rewrite free of charge and give to you guys to be distributed free of charge or for nominal cost. equally i am completely happy if you guys have inhouse IT capability and want to write yourselves - no problems. also thesource code for the program i will issue as public domain info so that everyone and anyone can modify and or improve

let me know what you think and pose any questions

Alex Weir 27 December 1999


Contacts:

Terrie L. King
Internet Marketing Manager
United Cerebral Palsy Association
1660 L Street, NW, #700
Washington, DC 20036
Ph.: 800-872-5827
Fax: 202-776-0414
http://www.ucpa.org
tking@ucpa.org

Gus Estrella
UCPA
1660 L Street, NW, #700
Washington, DC 20036
Ph.: 800-872-5827
Fax: 202-776-0414
http://www.ucpa.org
gestrella@ucpa.org

Wil Morales
Mentor Coordinator
Tech Connections
490 Tenth Street
Atlanta, GA 30318
USA
1-877-TEK-SEEK
404-385-0639
404-385-0641 fax
http://www.techconnections.org
wil@crt.gatech.edu