EdgeWrite: A New Text Entry Technique Designed for Stability

EdgeWrite is a new design for text entry which yields methods that are accessible to some people with motor impairments or who are in physically destabilizing situations like walking or riding. Important properties of EdgeWrite include ease of learning due to the similarity of its letters to Roman characters, stability of motion due to tracing along physical edges, and simple implementation on a wide variety of input devices. Studies suggest that EdgeWrite works well when implemented for use with a stylus on a handheld device, a joystick on a power wheelchair, or for a touchpad on a desktop computer. A future implementation will explore desktop text entry using a trackball.