Disablility freeware?

[Steve H]

My father has suffered a number of strokes in the last few years, the
last being quite severe - but his recovery is such that his physical
disabilities are hindering his means and desire to communicate
effectively.

He seems to think that a laptop would be a handy tool to help him
communicate as he finds it easier to hit keys than he does to write.

He's relatively computer savvy, but doesn't have very precise control
over his right hand ( his left being even less useful ).

Does anyone have any recommendations based on practical experience for
freeware that might prove useful? I found plenty of links, but unless
you're actually experiencing a particular disability it's hard to know
whether a certain app is useful or not.

Regards,

 

[Dave]

My father has suffered a number of strokes in the last few years, the
last being quite severe - but his recovery is such that his physical
disabilities are hindering his means and desire to communicate
effectively.

He seems to think that a laptop would be a handy tool to help him
communicate as he finds it easier to hit keys than he does to write.

He's relatively computer savvy, but doesn't have very precise control
over his right hand ( his left being even less useful ).

Does anyone have any recommendations based on practical experience for
freeware that might prove useful? I found plenty of links, but unless
you're actually experiencing a particular disability it's hard to know
whether a certain app is useful or not.

Regards,

You might try the ACA for starters.(Amputee Coalition of America)
Http://www.aca.org They have a wealth of info and links for all type
of disability. Similar circumstances..limited use of hand...They helped
me a lot with pointing me in the right direction for info after my
amputation. Lots of good active message boards to try for info too


Dave

 

[Dan Goodman]

You might try the ACA for starters.(Amputee Coalition of America)
Http://www.aca.org

www.amputee-coalition.org

They may have had aca.org in the past; but it's now owned by the
American Correctional Association.

They have a wealth of info and links for all
type of disability. Similar circumstances..limited use of hand...They
helped me a lot with pointing me in the right direction for info
after my amputation. Lots of good active message boards to try for
info too


Dave

--

--
Dan Goodman
Journal http://www.livejournal.com/users/dsgood/
Clutterers Anonymous unofficial community
http://www.livejournal.com/community/clutterers_anon/
Decluttering http://decluttering.blogspot.com
Predictions and Politics http://dsgood.blogspot.com
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer, physician.

 

[Kittie Spit]

Steve,

I sympathize with your situation, believe me. Just a suggestion: have
you investigated sound/audio apps that will allow him to control his
PC, type whatever, or even record audio messages to send, etc.? You'd
need, of course, a microphone, sound card, cables, etc. I found this
sort of setup to be a real lifesaver a few years ago when I installed
same on a friend's PC.

Hope you get some good advice here & some recommendations.
Please, report back here on what you uncover.

 

[Kittie Spit]

One other thing: you don't mention vision as a problem, but there are
freeware apps to zoom the screen size to a better viewing size.

Sorry, I don't have any specific apps to recommend, but I'll see if I
can come up with something.

 

[Dave]

Dave wrote:




www.amputee-coalition.org

They may have had aca.org in the past; but it's now owned by the
American Correctional Association.

Thx for the update on the url. it has been a while for me since I needed
them.


Dave

 

[Steve H]

www.amputee-coalition.org

They may have had aca.org in the past; but it's now owned by the
American Correctional Association.

Thanks guys, I'll check it out.

Regards,

 

[Steve H]

Steve,

I sympathize with your situation, believe me. Just a suggestion: have
you investigated sound/audio apps that will allow him to control his
PC, type whatever, or even record audio messages to send, etc.? You'd
need, of course, a microphone, sound card, cables, etc. I found this
sort of setup to be a real lifesaver a few years ago when I installed
same on a friend's PC.

The problem for him is that his speech is seriously impaired - so
voice control isn't going to be an option for him.
The reverse might be useful though...a text to speech engine.

Hope you get some good advice here & some recommendations.
Please, report back here on what you uncover.

Thanks, I'll follow up if I find anything that works really well for
him.

Regards,

 

[Susan Bugher]

Tony Smith's disabilities web page lists some Freeware apps that may be useful:

http://www.tony-smith.me.uk/disability_software.htm

(For future reference - Tony's site is listed on the ACF Members Sites page.)

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
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Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[ken]

For help with speaking, check out
http://www.talkforme.com

 

[Susan Bugher]

The problem for him is that his speech is seriously impaired - so
voice control isn't going to be an option for him.
The reverse might be useful though...a text to speech engine.

See:

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/P_TEXT.php#5.04ConvertTextToSpeech

This might be helpful too(???) - the demo could be used to create an assortment of clips to
communicate common comments/requests. (A simple HTML menu would make it easy to select a clip.)

TTS Interactive Demo
http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html
Convert text to speech and save as a wave file. TTS Demo Speaks Your Text. (English: Spanish; German
or French)

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[POKO]

On 14 Sep 2005 18:37:17 -0700, "Kittie Spit" <[email protected]>
wrote: snip

The problem for him is that his speech is seriously impaired - so
voice control isn't going to be an option for him.
The reverse might be useful though...a text to speech engine.

Thanks, I'll follow up if I find anything that works really well for
him.

Regards,

I have a neighbor that is sight-impaired and I installed Sayz Me on her
machine which works well. Several features in the options:
http://sayzme.sourceforge.net/

 

[Kittie Spit]

Here's another site featuring disability freeware, FreewareArena:
Link to Disability page:
http://freewarearena.com/html/index.php?name=Downloads&c=153

 

[Kittie Spit]

Here's another tool that might be of some use:
http://www.ajpowell.com/autobrowse.html

Aarons Auto-Browse
"Aarons Auto-Browse Free utility to download. Surf the easy way, save a
number of websites and Aarons Auto-Browse will loop through them all.
Why wear out your mouse or get worn out joints, let Aarons Auto-Browse
surf for you. Set a predefined time on each page, read it and let the
autobrowse work for you. Useful for the people with disabilities, or it
could be used as a slideshow of your sites URL's, set and forget it.
Set the free version going and it will loop through up to six URL's."
Note the limitations of the freeware version.