[Athen] Onscreen keyboards for Mac OS X

[Charles Silverman]

Hi Sue,

Spending $300 or so for KeyStrokes puts you in the same price range  
as other supported commercial onscreen keyboard software, either Mac  
or WIndows. Wivik(Windows only) goes for about $400 and  
Discover:Screen(Mac/Windows)  is about $200.

I've looked at KeyStrokes briefly and was impressed but need to spend  
more time with it. Check out the comments over at MacUpdate (http:// 
www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7479) and an older (2003) review at  
http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/ks3.shtml .  Also,  
AssistiveWare, one of the KeyStroke vendors, maintains a discussion  
forum (http://www.assistiveware.com/keystrokes.php) .

For what it's worth, there's an interesting set of videos (http:// 
www.assistiveware.com/videos.php?video=Joe_SWKOTOR&format=mov),  
though this is coming from a vendor and focuses more on the switch  
and scanning end of things.

Jon Adams, over at the Mass. Hospital School in Canton, MA, might  
have some helpful observations on Macs and on-screen keyboards. Email  
me offline and I can give you his contact info.

Hope this helps.

best,
Charles
______________
Charles Silverman, M.Ed.
Coordinator, Special Needs Opportunity Windows- SNOW
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre/Faculty of Information Studies
University of Toronto
web: http://snow.utoronto.ca
email: charles.silverman at utoronto.ca
phone: 416-946-8301



>

> Hello,

>

> I have a 3rd year college student who is confined to a wheelchair and

> has trouble typing on his Mac laptop. He has looked into purchasing

> Key Strokes which is a fully-functional advanced virtual on-screen

> keyboard that allows you to type with a mouse, trackball, head

> pointer or other mouse emulator to type characters into any standard

> Macintosh application. It also provides advanced multilingual word  

> prediction.

>

> It costs about $300.00!

>

> Do any of you have any familiarity with this product and care to

> share some comments/advice?

>

> Do any of you use something similar that would be less costly?

>

> Any HELP would be appreciated!

>

> Thanks!

>

>

> Sue

> ***********************************************************

> Susan A. Morgado

> Director of Technology Support

> Assistive Technology Specialist

> Library and Information Services

> Wheaton College

> Norton, MA 02766

> 508.286.3754

> http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/IT_S/support/

> http://www/staff/suemorgado.html

> ***********************************************************

>