Access on Main Street

So you’ve been lingering for hours over your Optimus keyboard, and you’re too tired to even suss whether your coffee is still hot. Never fear: our close personal friend Art Lebedev knew this would happen, and came up with a mug that provides a visual temperature indicator on the outside. Good for people with impaired heat sensitivity and some types of cognitive disabilities.

Crunchgear: This Art Lebedev mug shows your caffeine power level

Hmm…spend $2,400 on an Optimus Maximus keyboard, or spend $10 for fluorescent keyboard labels that will at least let us pretend we have an Optimus. The Glowing Keyboard Stickers could be useful for some people with low vision, but we wish the letters/numbers were in large print.

ThinkGeek: Glowing keyboard stickers

The Pelikon MorphPad can light up different sections of a mobile device’s keyboard based on the active function–just the numbers for telephony, just the control keys for a game. Should be useful for people with low vision, as well as providing cuing to people with cognitive disabilities. Take that, Optimus!

Ubergizmo: Pelikon MorphPad offers different input methods

The proposed Miniguru keyboard goes our old friend Optimus Maximus one better. Like the Optimus, it allows you to customize the key functions and displays–but it also allows you to specify whether you want the keys to be “clicky,” “tactile,” or “linear.” Not clear whether you could actually do this key adjustment at will (we’d love that) or whether there would simply be different models available. Regardless, this would be great not only for people with various types of dexterity impairments, but also for elders who have been reluctant to use computer keyboards because the touch feels so different from the typewriters they’re used to.

Yanko Design: Looks like a normal keyboard, doesn’t it?

We’ve been following the pricy, exotic Optimus keyboard for a while, with its promise of a tiny display on every key.  This feature would let you connect the key’s image to a specific program or function, which may help users with cognitive disabilities.  Now a modestly-priced ($US135) knock-off arrives: regular-looking keyboard, but with 9 extra keys that have monochrome (yellow on black) icon capabilities.  It comes with a software utility that will convert any image into a key’s icon.  We’re buying one just to play Hollywood Squares.

Engadget: OCZ’s Sabre OLED gaming keyboard now shipping, priced at $135

Move over, Brangelina; the next hot couple could be Maxiberry–a Blackberry with an Optimus Maximus keyboard. Possible features include a predictive keyboard–type one letter, and only the keys with letters that would logically follow are left available–which has been available in the accessibility world for some time. Just a concept for now; we’ll let you know if it gets prototyped.

The Mozilla Phone: Maximizing Channels of Communication + Throw-away Concept #1

Another holiday season come and gone, and still no one’s gifted AoMS with an Optimus OLED keyboard. Maybe next year we’ll drop hints for a more modest product from United Keys, which has 9 programmable keys (available as either part of a keyboard or a separate keypad) with high-contrast monochrome displays. Its driver software does something that we’re not sure even Optimus does, which is to recognize the currently active application and load the relevant commands and icons accordingly, reducing the dexterity and cognitive load for any user.

Technabob: United Keys offers OLED keyboards on the cheap