Based on the sighted people I know, the ones who learned to touch type 
prefer hardware keyboards while the ones who hunt and peck prefer touch 
screen typing. The amazing thing is that I know a lot of 
hunt-and-peckers who work at a computer all day.

My own concern about the wide spread use of gestures is that they can 
lead to repetitive stress injury. I know all my years of typing have 
resulted in a wrist that sometimes gets tired at the end of the day, 
especially when a lot of arrowing is involved. One of the reasons I 
prefer Android to iOS is that I find double-tapping hard on that same 
wrist, especially by the end of the day. In Android 4.0, we needed to 
single-tap directly on the icon after exploring to it, and in 4.2 and 
4.3, we have single-tap mode as an option, which I find much less 
stressful on my hands.

What I've noticed from my time on the Android list is that people who 
have been using computers and screen readers for a long time sometimes 
complain about pain or flexibility issues. I'm wondering about the 
impact of gesture devices on wrist health, whether there will be an 
increase, decrease, or general constancy in stress related injury.


    VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
    http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
    Signoff: [log in to unmask]
    Subscribe: [log in to unmask]