I have a sensitive right wrist that gets lots of babying, and I also
believe it's caused by all the screen-reader arrowing I've done on the
number pad. In my case, what seems to exacerbate things is tucking my
thumb under to hold down the insert key while I arrow.
* Though it took me a very long time to get used to it, I've found that
using the Jaws laptop layout and commands like read next sentence help a
lot. Weirdly, even though I can hold down the caps-lock or control key
with my left hand and use the arrow keys with the right in NVDA, that
still seems to bother my wrist more than the Jaws laptop layout.
* my own experience with touch screens is mixed. When I use my Android,
I like being able to touch the right area of the screen, then explore or
swipe once or twice to the icon, as opposed to tabbing 10 times on the
computer, and I love being able to use Single-tap mode because for me,
double- and tripple-tapping is hard on my wrist. As far as Windows,
though, both my desktop and laptop have touch screens. I use them to
regain focus when Jaws is acting up or to review the screen when Jaws
refuses to let me do it with a keyboard, but I haven't found it all that
helpful in terms of cutting down on the number of keystrokes and hand
movements.
* I've learned to cut down on arrowing by using screen reader find
commands. Instead of arrowing to something, I search for a key word. In
documents that I'm creating or editing, I move to pages, or I insert
number signs or some other character I can search for to move to key
points quickly.
* I've learned to cut down on repetitive typing by using cut and paste
whenever possible. When I'm returning student homework, for example, I
write, "I've attached my feedback for Homework 3. You've earned #
points." Then I can just type the student's name, paste the sentence,
search for the #, and type it. Similarly, when I'm actually writing
responses, I create a sort of template with partial sentences,, which I
finish, like filling in the blanks.
I wish there were an easy solution for this because I feel like it's
beginning to be a problem.
Ciao
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