Here's what I've learned about teaching touch typing, and where I'm
inclinded to go.

First, thanks all for the pointer to PC Typer.  I downloaded it and tried
it out.   It has, for example, text to type on one line and you type on the
line below it and it checks what you typed. As you-all know, it requires a
screenreader to use.

I also found out from American Printing House that they are coming out with
something more like what I was looking for: a self contained program,
including speech, all on one CD.  However, it will be a while before it
comes out.

APH also has a series of 12 cassettes on touch typing.  I have a feeling
that they will be more descriptive than what's on PC typer. Has anyone had
experience with them?

Now, the main interest of the person I'm helping out is to get back on the
internet for browsing and email. This is for his personal pursuits, not his
job.  So he is not interested in spreadsheets etc.

I would like to get him back on the internet, and touch typing, with a
minimum of overhead.  So I'd like to avoid making him learn windows and
screen reading in general. Plus avoid the dollar cost of doing so.

I've started to look at IBM's new home page reader, the demo at
http://www.austin.ibm.com/sns/hpr.html
and it looks quite good.  Another good self contained speech output browser
is of course pwWebSpeak which has a demo available at
http://www.prodworks.com/eval.htm

Both of these allow text input and review.  Although I don't know at this
point which is easier.


So I'm inclined to suggest getting the APH tapes and using home page reader
or pwwebspeak to type into and read back what he has typed.  He'll be able
to hear what he's typing letter by letter and also read it back.

A drawback of this approach is, unlike PC Typer, it doesn't do an exact
check of what he's typed.  For example, with synthetic speech it may be
tough to tell on playback if he typed B or V (which are next to each other
besides).  Especially since he's over 80 years old, so he may have lost
some of the frequencies necessary for that discrimination.

On the other hand, this gets him on typing and on the net without taking
the time and hassle of learning anything else.

In the future, if he wants more out of the computer, he may want to go to a
regular screen reader.  But he may not.  And if he didn't he will have
gotten where he wants with minimal fuss.

Please tell me if I'm crazy here.

Len


At 07:58 PM 3/2/99 -0800, Kelly Ford wrote:
>The program I've used to do this is PC Typer from the American Printing
>House.  The program's maybe a bit soft in the description of hand
>positioning although it does try this.  But it does the rest of the tasks
>pretty well.
>
>Kelly
>
>
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-------
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Universal Design Engineer, Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
Adjunct Professor, Electrical Engineering
Temple University

Ritter Hall Annex, Room 423, Philadelphia, PA 19122
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