Accessible Handheld And Desktop Text Entry For People With Motor Impairments

In recent years there has been much effort to make desktop computers more accessible to people with motor impairments. However, computing today increasingly takes place off the desktop on small handheld devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones. But little attention has been paid to making these devices accessible, particularly to those who have motor impairments such as tremor or spasm. To address this, we have developed a new text entry method for PDAs and mobile phones called EdgeWrite, which provides physical stability to people entering text on a Palm PDA. Our studies show that EdgeWrite is significantly more accurate than the built-in method Graffiti for people both with and without motor impairments. We have also adapted the EdgeWrite design to common input devices for desktop computer access, thus lowering the cost for adequate computer access in the workplace.