Hi all;

I got this email from someone that I know, but don't know the answer and
thought I'd ask the great minds on this list if they have
suggestions.  It's about using an on screen keyboard with an application
that displays in two panes.  Read below for details.  Please respond to the
list or to Sandra directly ([log in to unmask]).

Many thanks.
Kathy

I'm writing to ask for accessibility advice.  I have a colleague with ALS
who uses an on-screen keyboard.  To keep everything visible, she has to
reduce the size of some of her application windows (none can run maximized
to full-screen, or she loses keyboard control).

My colleague is having trouble with one application (not a MS product)
which divides its work window into two panes, with an adjustable separator
bar between them.  When the product is not maximized to full screen, the
separator bar appears in a decidedly non-optimal position, and she needs to
move it by dragging it, and that's a nearly impossible operation for her to
perform.  It's as if the default view for an Excel spreadsheet or a Word
document had the split box adjusted to the wrong screen position.  (I'll
continue to say "separator bar" instead of "split box" because these aren't
MS products, and the solution that she needs is for the general case.)

I know about macro packages that allow one to pre-program mouse movements.
These would work for her purposes EXCEPT for the problem that the specific
location of the separator bar changes, depending upon the text of the
document that she opens.  So...  I think I need to find a very very special
macro package that can _find_ a particular target, then do a virtual
button-down/drag/release sequence.  It's clear, from changes to the cursor
image, that Windows "knows" when the cursor is over the separator bar.  So
one strategy (if I could find the write accommodation software) would be to
write a macro that put the cursor at the bottom of the screen, and moved it
up the screen, and stopped when the cursor image changed, and then did the
button-down/drag/release operation.  Do you know if anything like that
exists?

Thanks,

Sandra Kogan
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kathy Cahill
MIT Adaptive Technology (ATIC) lab
77 Mass. Ave. 11-103
Cambridge MA 02139
(617) 253-5111
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