Miniguru
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.
Gboard
Gboard is an interesting example of a product that will meet some accessibility needs, but with a little more design consideration could have met even more. It’s a plug-and-play pad with keys for 18 of the 69 Gmail shortcuts, plus an Escape key. For people who would have difficulty memorizing the shortcuts (or just don’t want to), just the existence of the product is helpful. As another cognitive aid, it groups and color-codes keys with related functions, although providing more variations in key shape would have made this accessible to blind users (only the Open/Close key is a different size than the others). Each key has both a icon and text label, which provides great cognitive access, but the text appears to be quite small, in all caps, and with less-than-optimal contrast against the background, which will pose legibility issues for some people with visual and learning disabilities. We’ll assume the keys require no more than standard activation force, so it could provide dexterity accommodations.
Playing close to the chest
OK, let’s say that your dexterity limitations don’t match the killer version of Smoke On The Water that you know you have inside. Introducing ThinkGeek’s playable guitar t-shirt, also available in a drum model, that would be perfect for folks who have some range of motion but wouldn’t be able to actually hold an instrument.
Puff the magic interface
Never mind that flat touch screen displays are almost always inaccessible to blind folks. They’re also aesthetically ooky to all of us who are used to feeling resistance from a pressed button, key, etc. as tactile confirmation that we’ve actually made contact with what we’re trying to operate. Chris Harrison, a student at Carnegie Mellon, is working on a flat panel display with pneumatic components that allow for concave and convex interface elements. Could be just the touch of genius necessary to bring universal access to the cellie age.
Chris Harrison: Providing Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons on a Visual Display
Impeccably peckable
The standard QWERTY keyboard layout can be hard to grok for some people with cognitive disabilities, not to mention those who’ve never formally learned to type. We’ve seen keyboards with the keys arranged in alphabetic order before, but this is the first that lets you switch between alpha and QWERTY with just the press of a button. At $30, it’s also priced more attractively than other alpha-order keyboards. (Side note: for the last several versions of Windows, Microsoft has included a control panel that lets you reconfigure your key layout in almost any way possible…except alpha. Fingers crossed for Win 7.)
Sender victorious
Like real English phone booths, the London Calling Mobile Phone is bright red and charmingly retro. It also does a pretty good job of having buttons that can be distinguished by touch–the dialpad buttons on the left and right are angled while the center ones are straight, and the rocker buttons for basic function control appear to have a dip in the center.
Engadget: London Calling Mobile Phone makes us long to be British
Kustom Keyboard Kapers
We’ve been following the pricy, exotic Optimus keyboard for a while, with its promise of a tiny display on every key. This feature would let you connect the key’s image to a specific program or function, which may help users with cognitive disabilities. Now a modestly-priced ($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