faq typing injuries keyboard alternatives monthly posting archive name typing injury faq keyboards version revision date answers to frequently asked questions about keyboard alternatives the alternative keyboard faq copyright by dan wallach dwallach cs berkeley edu the opinions in here are my own unless otherwise mentioned and do not represent the opinions of any organization or vendor current distribution sci med occupational sci med comp human factors news sci comp answers and e mail to c health iubvm ucs indiana edu sorehand vm ucsf edu and cstg l vtvm cc vt edu changes since previously distributed versions are marked with change bars to the right of the text as is this paragraph information in this faq has been pieced together from phone conversations e mail and product literature while i hope it s useful the information in here is neither comprehensive nor error free if you find something wrong or missing please mail me and i ll update my list thanks all phone numbers unless otherwise mentioned are u s a phone numbers all monetary figures unless otherwise mentioned are u s a dollars products covered in this faq using a pc s keyboard on your workstation compatibility issues apple computer inc key tronic flexpro dragon systems the bat datahand comfort keyboard system kinesis ergonomic keyboard maltron the tony ergonomic keysystem the vertical the mikey the wave the minimal motion computer access system twiddler half qwerty microwriter braille n speak octima accukey gif pictures of many of these products are available via anonymous ftp from soda berkeley edu pub typing injury i highly recommend getting the pictures they tell much more than i can fit into this file if you can t ftp send me mail and i ll uuencode and mail them to you they re pretty big using a pc s keyboard on your workstation compatibility issues mini outline spoofing a keyboard over the serial port x terminals next silicon graphics ibm rs other stuff spoofing a keyboard over the serial port if you ve got a proprietary computer which uses its own keyboard sun hp dec etc then you re going to have a hard time finding a vendor to sell you a compatible keyboard if your workstation runs the x window system you re in luck you can buy a cheap used pc hook your expensive keyboard up to it and run a serial cable to your workstation then run a program on the workstation to read the serial port and generate fake x keyboard events the two main programs i ve found to do this are kt and a x a x is a sophisticated program capable of controlling the mouse and even moving among widgets on the screen it requires a server extension xtest dec xtrap or xtestextension to find out if your server can do this run xdpyinfo and see if any of these strings appear in the extensions list if your server doesn t have this you may want to investigate compiling x r patchlevel or later or bugging your vendor kt is a simpler program which should work with unextended x servers another program called xsendevent also exists but i haven t seen it both a x and kt are available via anonymous ftp from soda berkeley edu x terminals also a number of x terminals ncd tektronics to name a few use pc compatible keyboards if you have an x terminal you may be all set try it out with a normal pc keyboard before you go through the trouble of buying an alternative keyboard also some x terminals add extra buttons you may need to keep your original keyboard around for the once in a blue moon that you have to hit the setup key next next had announced that new next machines will use the apple desktop bus meaning any mac keyboard will work then they announced they were cancelling their hardware production if you want any kind of upgrade for an older next do it now silicon graphics silicon graphics has announced that their newer machines indigo and beyond will use standard pc compatible keyboards and mice i don t believe this also applies to the power series machines it s not possible to upgrade an older sgi to use pc keyboards except by upgrading the entire machine contact your sgi sales rep for more details ibm rs ibm rs keyboards are actually similar to normal pc keyboards unfortunately you can t just plug one in you need two things a cable converter to go from the large pc keyboard connector to the smaller ps style din and a new device driver for aix believe it or not ibm wrote this device driver recently i used it and it works however they don t want me to redistribute it i ve been told judy hume is a potential contact if you learn anything new please send me e mail other stuff some vendors here notably health care keyboard co and accucorp support some odd keyboard types and may be responsive to your queries regarding supporting your own weird computer if you can get sufficient documention about how your keyboard works either from the vendor or with a storage oscilloscope you may be in luck contact the companies for more details apple adjustable keyboard apple computer inc sales offices all over the place availability february price supports mac only apple has recently announced their new split design keyboard the keyboard has one section for each hand and the sections rotate backward on a hinge the sections do not tilt upward the keys are arranged in a normal qwerty fashion the main foldable keyboard resembles a normal apple keyboard a separate keypad contains all the extended key functions the keyboard also comes with matching wrist rests which are not directly attachable to the keyboard as soon as soda comes back up i ll have a detailed blurb from tidbits available there flexpro keyboard key tronic phone possible contact denise razzeto sold by many clone vendors and pc shops availability spring price supports pc only highly likely keytronic apparently showed a prototype keyboard at comdex it s another split design one thumb wheel controls the tilt of both the left and right hand sides of the main alphanumeric section the arrow keys and keypad resemble a normal key pc keyboard keytronic makes standard pc keyboards also so this product will probably be sold through their standard distribution channels dragondictate k and numerous other dragon products dragon systems inc nevada street newton ma phone talk typ or fax shipping now price dragondictate k end user system dragonwriter end user developer system various other prices for service contracts site licenses etc compatibility or higher pc only rd party support for mac free software support for x windows is also available your pc with dragon hardware talks to your workstation over a serial cable or network the program is called a x and is available via anonymous ftp soda berkeley edu pub typing injury a x tar z export lcs mit edu contrib a x tar z most current if you want to use your dragon product with x windows you may want to ask for peter cohen an salesman at dragon who knows more about this sort of thing dragon systems sells a number of voice recognition products most if not all of them seem to run on pc s and compatibles including ps s and other microchannel boxes they sell you a hardware board and software which sits in front of a number of popular word processors and spreadsheets each user trains the system to their voice and there are provisions to correct the system when it makes mistakes on the fly multiple people can use it but you have to load a different personality file for each person you still get the use of your normal keyboard too on the dragondictate k you need to pause th sec between words dragon claims typical input speeds of words per minute i don t have specs on the dragonwriter the dragondictate k can recognize words at a time the dragonwriter can recognize you guessed it words at a time dragon s technology is also part of the following products about which i have no other info microsoft windows sound system voice pilot ibm voicetype voice navigator ii by articulate systems for macintosh emstation by lanier voice products emergency medical workstation the bat old phone number current phone number infogrip inc north blvd baton rouge louisiana u s a ward bond main contact david vicknair did the unix software shipping now supports mac ibm pc serial port native keyboard port version coming very soon no other workstations supported but serial support for unix with x windows has been written pc and mac are getting all the real attention from the company a chording system one hand is sufficient to type everything the second hand is for redundancy and increased speed price dual set each one is a complete keyboard by itself single cheaper prices were offered at macworld expo as a show special datahand industrial innovations inc north th street scottsdale arizona u s a mark roggenbuck contact supports pc and mac shipping in beta big backlog could take months price unit unit pods new price each hand has its own pod each of the four main fingers has five switches each forward back left right and down the thumbs have a number of switches despite appearances the key layout resembles qwerty and is reported to be no big deal to adapt to the idea is that your hands never have to move to use the keyboard the whole pod tilts in its base to act as a mouse see also the detailed review written by cliff lasser cal think com available via anonymous ftp from soda berkeley edu comfort keyboard system fax health care keyboard company n w appleton ave menomonee falls wisconsin u s a jeffrey szmanda vice president contact shipping now supports pc and mac planned future support ibm key layout style i believe sun sparc decision data unisys uts silicon graphics others to be supported later the hardware design is relatively easy for the company to re configure price including one system personality module the idea is that one keyboard works with everything you purchase compatibility modules a new cord and possibly new keycaps and then you can move your one keyboard around among different machines it s a three piece folding keyboard the layout resembles the standard key keyboard except sliced into three sections each section is on a custom telescoping universal mount each section independently adjusts to an infinite number of positions allowing each individual to type in a natural posture you can rearrange the three sections too have the keypad in the middle if you want each section is otherwise normal shaped i e you put all three sections flat and you have what looks like a normal key keyboard kinesis ergonomic keyboard fax kinesis corporation pacific highway south seattle washington u s a shirley lunde vp marketing contact shipping now supports pc mac and sun sparc in the works price volume discounts available the includes one foot pedal one set of adhesive wrist pads and a typingtutor program an additional foot pedal and other accessories are extra the layout has a large blank space in the middle even though the keyboard is about the size of a normal pc keyboard slightly smaller each hand has its own set of keys laid out to minimize finger travel thumb buttons handle many major functions enter backspace etc you can remap the keyboard in firmware very nice when software won t allow the reconfig foot pedals are also available and can be mapped to any key on the keyboard shift control whatever maltron united kingdom p c d maltron limited orchard lane east molesey surrey kt obn england pamela and stephen hobday contacts u s distributor jim barrett applied learning corp glen hardie road wayne pa phone supports pc s amstrad bbc b bbc master mac apparently now also available price pounds shipped in the u s a basically converted price shipping the cost is less for bbc computers and they have a number of accessories including carrying cases switch boxes to use both your normal keyboard and the maltron an articulated arm that clamps on to your table and training courses to help you learn to type on your maltron you can also rent a keyboard for pounds week taxes u s price month and then off purchase if you want it shipping now in your choice of colors black or grey maltron has four main products a two handed keyboard two one handed keyboards and a keyboard designed for handicapped people to control with a mouth stick the layout allocates more buttons to the thumbs and is curved to bring keys closer to the fingers a separate keypad is in the middle accukey accucorp inc p o box christiansburg va u s a pete rosenquist sales larry langley president shipping now supports pc mac ibm sun sparc and televideo and cost shipping doesn t use conventional push keys soft rubber keys which rock forward and backward each key has three states make chords for typing keys learning time is estimated to be hours for getting started and maybe two weeks to get used to it currently the thumbs don t do anything although a thumb trackball is in the works the company claims it takes about a week of work to support a new computer they will be happy to adapt their keyboard to your computer if possible twiddler or handykey mt sinai ave mt sinai ny chris george president shipping now price supports pc only mac and x windows in the works the twiddler is both a keyboard and a mouse and it fits in one hand you type via finger chords shift control etc are thumb buttons when in mouse mode tilting the twiddler moves the mouse and mouse buttons are on your fingers the cabling leaves your normal keyboard available also most applications work and windows works fine desqview has trouble geoworks also has trouble mouse works keyboard doesn t braille n speak blazie engineering mill green rd street md u s a information provided by doug martin martin nosc mil the braille n speak uses any of several braille codes for entering information grade i grade ii or computer braille basically letters a j are combinations of dots and letters k t are the same combinations as a j with dot added letters u v x y and z are like a e with dots and added w is unique because louis braille didn t have a w in the french alphabet the tony ergonomic keysystem tony hodges the tony corporation thompson court mountain view ca u s a supports mac pc ibm sun and dec shipping price you commit now and then you re in line to buy the keyboard when it ships if it s cheaper you pay the cheaper price if it s more expensive you still pay the tony should allow separate positioning of every key to allow the keyboard to be personally customized a thumb operated mouse will also be available the vertical contact jeffrey spencer or stephen albert p o box la jolla ca u s a supports no info available probably pc s available summer price the vertical keyboard is split in two halves each pointing straight up the user can adjust the width of the device but not the tilt of each section side view mirrors are installed to allow users to see their fingers on the keys the mikey dr alan grant woodhollow drive chevy chase maryland u s a shipping as of july should be available in one year supports pc mac maybe price estimated the keyboard is at a fixed angle and incorporates a built in mouse operated by the thumbs function keys are arranged in a circle at the keyboard s left the wave was fax iocomm international technology yukon avenue hawthorne california u s a robin hunter contact in sales cost for a set of cables supports pc only shipping now iocomm also manufactures ordinary key keyboard pc at and key keyboard pc xt so make sure you get the right one the one piece keyboard has a built in wrist rest it looks exactly like a normal key pc keyboard with two inches of built in wrist rest the key switch feel is reported to be greatly improved the minimal motion computer access system fax equal access computer technology dr michael weinreigh oneida rd acton ma u s a price infogrip compatible a few hundred dollars a one handed bat for their own system dos software a few hundred dollars shipping these are custom made so an occupational therapist would make moulds do whatever to make it for you you can buy one now supports pc only although the infogrip compatible version might work with a mac in a one handed version there is exactly one button per finger in a two handed version you get four buttons per finger and the thumbs don t do anything you can also get one handed versions with three thumb buttons compatible with the infogrip bat basically get it any way you want they also have a software tutorial to help you learn the chording works on a pc under dos not windows planning on macintosh and pc windows support no work has been done on a unix version yet half qwerty canada the matias corporation thistledown boulevard rexdale ontario canada m v k e mail ematias dgp toronto edu supports mac and pc but not windows demo for anonymous ftp explorer dgp toronto edu pub half qwerty price higher in canada quantity discounts available shipping now this thing is purely software no hardware at all the software will mirror the keyboard when you hold down the space bar allowing you type one handed octima israel fax ergoplic keyboards ltd p o box kiryat ono israel info from mandy jaffe katz rxhfun haifauvm bitnet a one handed keyboard microwriter agenda u k fax microwriter systems plc m s a house albany court albany park frimley surrey gu xa united kingdom info from carroll morgan carroll morgan prg oxford ac uk the agenda is a personal desktop assistant pda style machine you can carry it along with you it has chording input you can also hook it up to your pc or even program it it costs just under pounds with k memory thanks go to chris bekins as ccb forsythe stanford edu for providing the basis for this information thanks to the numerous contributors doug martin martin nosc mil carroll morgan carroll morgan prg oxford ac uk mandy jaffe katz rxhfun haifauvm bitnet wes hunter wesley hunter atlantaga ncr com paul schwartz pschwrtz cs washington edu h j woltring woltring nici kun nl dan sorenson viking iastate edu chris vanharen vanharen mit edu ravi pandya ravi xanadu com leonard h tower jr tower ai mit edu dan jacobson dan jacobson att com jim cheetham jim oasis icl co uk cliff lasser cal think com richard donkin richardd hoskyns co uk paul rubin phr napa telebit com david erb erb fullfeed com bob scheifler rws expo lcs mit edu chris grant chris grant um cc umich edu scott mandell sem postoffice mail cornell edu and everybody else who i ve probably managed to forget the opinions in here are my own unless otherwise mentioned and do not represent the opinions of any organization or vendor dan wallach one of the most attractive features of a connection dwallach cs berkeley edu machine is the array of blinking lights on the faces office of its cabinet cm paris ref manual v p
