Please Help For A disabled Child
Moderators: Dorian (MJT support), JRL
Please Help For A disabled Child
I hope the group can help me with this. I have a child who is disabled and has a very hard time using the keyboard. He loves computer games and also plays a few of those ones online. Latley it has gotten harder for him to use the keyboard. The games he plays has these keys like CTRL+ALT+10.....ect...and some of them have like 30 of these. Becuase of this he gets very frustrated. I was hoping that I could find a program that would let him do it by clicking a button on the desktop with the mouse and send that key to the program that was active. I wanted to have like a bar of buttons with maybe 3 rows and 10 buttons per row that I could label for him. For example " Get Gun" and that would be CTRL+ALT+F1. I have even tried to reconfigure some of the keys for him inside the game but to no avail they where still to hard for him. So I was hopping that this software would help him. Now I'm not very good with computers so if anybody out there could possible help by sending me an example of how to do it with this program or even some advice it would be greatly appreciated. Oh also I have XP on the system.
Hi,
There are lots of ways you could do this. Here are some that come to mind:
1) In XP run the On Screen Keyboard - osk.exe - also under Programs/Accessories/Accessibility. This is basic and you will undoubtedly find better ones more suited to your son(?), but this is a good start. Create macros to simulate the complicated keystrokes, e.g:
SetFocus>window_title
Press CTRL
Press ALT
Press NP10
Release ALT
Release CTRL
(Ctrl-Alt-10)
Now assign this macro a simpler keystroke - for example F2. Now you cam just click F2 on the on screen keyboard.
This could become a problem if F2 already exists or is necessary and you may run out of keys, so:
2) Create desktop shortcuts to your keystroke macros - now you just have to click on the shortcut to activate the keystroke. Make sure your macro does a SetFocus first though - as you will have removed focus from the target app by clicking on the desktop.
If you have set your folder options to allow single clicks (My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/Single Click to Open an Item..) - rather than the default double clicks then you will make this approach even easier. Furthermore you don't have to create desktop shortcuts - a folder full of script files will do - with Macro Scheduler's file associations you just now need to click on the .scp file to trigger the keyboard shortcut.
3) Someone posted a script to the Scripts & Tips page (http://www.mjtnet.com/scripts.hts) which demonstrated how to add buttons to the MS Office toolbar that trigger Macro Scheduler macros. This is a nice idea that will let you create a toolbar of macros where each button runs a macro which simply issues the required keystroke. Here's the link to the "macrobar" script:
http://www.mjtnet.com/scripts.hts?display+78
There are countless other ways you can run macros - if you know a bit of programming you can create a button bar which runs Macro Scheduler macros. Each macro can be the appropriate keyboard shortcut. There may well be some freeware/shareware toolbar builders out there. You could even add icons to the Taskbar's quick launch bar. Or you may find an accessibility tool that is designed specifically for the task - one that lets you map keystrokes to mouse clicks.
I know of other people that have used Macro Scheduler for similar 'accessibility' uses. I hope I have given you some ideas.
There are lots of ways you could do this. Here are some that come to mind:
1) In XP run the On Screen Keyboard - osk.exe - also under Programs/Accessories/Accessibility. This is basic and you will undoubtedly find better ones more suited to your son(?), but this is a good start. Create macros to simulate the complicated keystrokes, e.g:
SetFocus>window_title
Press CTRL
Press ALT
Press NP10
Release ALT
Release CTRL
(Ctrl-Alt-10)
Now assign this macro a simpler keystroke - for example F2. Now you cam just click F2 on the on screen keyboard.
This could become a problem if F2 already exists or is necessary and you may run out of keys, so:
2) Create desktop shortcuts to your keystroke macros - now you just have to click on the shortcut to activate the keystroke. Make sure your macro does a SetFocus first though - as you will have removed focus from the target app by clicking on the desktop.
If you have set your folder options to allow single clicks (My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/Single Click to Open an Item..) - rather than the default double clicks then you will make this approach even easier. Furthermore you don't have to create desktop shortcuts - a folder full of script files will do - with Macro Scheduler's file associations you just now need to click on the .scp file to trigger the keyboard shortcut.
3) Someone posted a script to the Scripts & Tips page (http://www.mjtnet.com/scripts.hts) which demonstrated how to add buttons to the MS Office toolbar that trigger Macro Scheduler macros. This is a nice idea that will let you create a toolbar of macros where each button runs a macro which simply issues the required keystroke. Here's the link to the "macrobar" script:
http://www.mjtnet.com/scripts.hts?display+78
There are countless other ways you can run macros - if you know a bit of programming you can create a button bar which runs Macro Scheduler macros. Each macro can be the appropriate keyboard shortcut. There may well be some freeware/shareware toolbar builders out there. You could even add icons to the Taskbar's quick launch bar. Or you may find an accessibility tool that is designed specifically for the task - one that lets you map keystrokes to mouse clicks.
I know of other people that have used Macro Scheduler for similar 'accessibility' uses. I hope I have given you some ideas.
MJT Net Support
[email protected]
[email protected]
-
FreedomFries
Hope in this (exeptional) case the recomendation will remain untouched 
, or you explain why it should be better to reinvent the weel ?!
Keyboard for the disabled - User Feedback
, or you explain why it should be better to reinvent the weel ?!Keyboard for the disabled - User Feedback
Hi,
I did in fact suggest that Stevie look for an accessibility tool in one of my suggestions. This one looks particularly good. Thanks for your recommendation.
Stevie has tried a few of these tools but so far not found anything that does exactly what they want. However, I will email her details of this one so that she can check it out.
I did in fact suggest that Stevie look for an accessibility tool in one of my suggestions. This one looks particularly good. Thanks for your recommendation.
Stevie has tried a few of these tools but so far not found anything that does exactly what they want. However, I will email her details of this one so that she can check it out.
MJT Net Support
[email protected]
[email protected]
