Assisting an adolescent with cerebral palsy to entry text by using the chorded keyboard

Abstract

For people with severe motor disabilities, the utilization of a standard keyboard has been a challenge because of their motor limitations. This study aimed to design a chorded on-screen keyboard with a customized alternative input device to meet the needs of a client with cerebral palsy. A bilingual on-screen keyboard with Chinese and English input methods was designed especially for Chinese users. The intervention study revealed that the chorded on-screen keyboard with a customized alternative input device could significantly improve the text entry performance of the user and could efficiently be his communication tool. A deeper understanding on computer access through text entry was explored and better text entry training solutions were recommended for future researches.