After you learn the One-Hand QWERTY typing system, you will then have a great need for the mouse. At that point, you will need to adapt to your circumstance.

Most often, you will place the mouse on the same side of the keyboard as the hand to whom you plan to assign the job of Mouse Master!

Make sure to read our information about desks and keyboard racks for the one handed typists

Less-able Hand As Mouse Master for the One Hand Typist!

If you have any use of your less-able hand, then give it the job of Mouse Master. This will balance the workload of your body, and help keep you sitting up straight. Very often the injured hand can be encouraged by having it operate the mouse. Place the mouse directly in front of the arm you use as Mouse Master.

Is the less-able hand, or arm, shorter than the other arm? We do not want you bending over to use the mouse. You need to stay nice and tall, and not hunch over. Find a way to lift the mouse up to be at the level of the end of the that mouse-ing arm. Try a big pillow, and put a nice flat thing on top of it, like a cutting board. Put the mouse on that. There are premade "lap trays" that are pillows, with a flat hard surface on top, to be used to eat, or work off of. These are sometimes seen in bookstores, I bought one at a Sams Club. They are also special "adaptive" pillows that are meant to do the same thing. But they are MUCH more expensive!

What Type Of Mouse for the One Hand Typist!?

It took me years to figure out which mouse was best for me. Remember that I am using my less-able hand as my Mouse Master. For 8 years I used a standard mouse. But, I often spend 10 - 14 hours a day at my keyboard, doing serious typing on my books. One day, my less-able hand just went into a revolt. I needed to change.

There are several types of mice. Go to a large computer store, and see which one feels best with your less-able hand. I find a roller ball works well for me. But you will need to play with several to see which will fit you best.

You will make the decision first depending on which hand will operate the mouse. Do you only have one hand to do both? Can your less able hand manage the mouse? Will your Right or Left hand be the Mouse Master?

In summary, if you have part of your less able hand to work with, you are most likely going to need a trackball that will work for the right or left hand.

Click on these links to see samples.

If you only have the use of one-hand, experiment with the mouse.

Prosthesis and your mouse.

You might be able to use your prosthesis to operate a mouse. Go to a computer store, and see what feels comfortable. However, it takes a great deal of dexterity to operate the mouse. You might find the strain will cause pain to the prosthesis arm. Residual limbs that sufferedtrauma prior to amputation are subject to loss of muscle tone and could very well cause pain when overused. Overuse could then result in the loss of muscular contractions necessary for the operation of myo-electrics. Not to mention the sudden loss of electric charge in the battery.

Don't continue if pain occurs while you try to use the prosthesis to operate your mouse. Instead, find ways to use the good hand to use the mouse. Consider placing the mouse between the keyboard, and the screen. Or, you might find a small pillow, with a very thin, but wide book, set into your lap will be a good spot of the mouse. If you hope to work for someone else, always try to make the mainstream system work for you first.

Strictly one-handed typists will need to use the mouse as little as possible. Your one good hand is going to be very busy typing other stuff! Consider a keyboard that has the mouse built in the FRONT of the keyboard. See Sample here

Also, whenever possible, use keyboard commands instead of the mouse. There are keyboard commands for almost everything you need to do on a computer. A keyboard command is a series of keys you push to make stuff happen. SEE OUR PAGE ON SHORTCUTS.

Example: to QUIT a program on your computer, you can:

Use the mouse to go the FILE menu, and select QUIT, or with one-hand,

Hold down the CONTROL KEY on a PC or the APPLE KEY on a MAC. While holding the CONTROL KEY with one finger, you hold down the Q key.

Keyboard commands are faster for any typist – with one, two or a zillion hands - than the mouse. But they are also much easier for the strictly one-handed typist.

In today's Internet dependent world, a mouse is almost a must to navigate the Web. Your more-able hand will be able to handle this very well, as it won't be busy typing very much while you are surfing the Web.

If, after diligent practice, making the mouse work for you is just too difficult, there are also many mouse foot pedals.

Mac Users: there are some great tools built into the Mac OS that are a great help in mousing with one hand. Click here to see more about them. Or, just go to the FINDER level of your computer, they are accessible via Help menu.

PC Users: I don't like to send anyone working on one handed issues to Microsoft! They suggest you use an alternative keyboard layout, instead of the one that comes with 99.99% of all products - including their own. I keep trying to explain to them this makes no sense to use one hand users, and it should not make sense to their marketing people! But, the message is very slow to work it's way into the vast Microsoft machine. Anyway, at this page at Microsoft you will find all kind of shortcuts there for many of their programs, click here

Foot pedals

Foot pedals may be an solution for you. Unfortunately, they are not yet a brilliant solution. But, hang on, people are working on them all the time! Here are some reviews for someone who has tried several foot pedals mice.

At 4:40 PM -0400 5/23/01, Michael Schneider wrote:

In response to the message about foot pedals.

I have had the opportunity to borrow and try four different types of foot pedals that can be used for mouse clicks. My general thoughts are as follows.

1) No Hands Mouse
2) Balboa Pedals
3) Kinesis Foot Pedals
4) the Handmade Solution

1) No Hands Mouse.

ERGONOMICS: Generally Poor. The "clicker pedal" is stiff and requires far too much force to click. The "pointer pedal" is awkward to use. For tall people (such as myself), the assembly lifts one's feet too far off the floor making keyboard positioning difficult.

POINTER COMPATIBILITY: Fair. This foot mouse can be used in conjunction with any standard pointing device. Thus, you can use your hands to position the cursor and feet to click. However, you can not simultaneously click with your feet and drag the cursor with a hand-held pointer.

SOFTWARE DRIVERS: None.

2) Bilbo Pedals.

ERGONOMICS: Fair. The pedals are soft action. They are also unusual in that they are activated by raising the foot forward, lifting the heel of the ground. On the plus side, this allows you to rest your foot easily on the pedal when not clicking. On the downside, the clicking action raises one's knees, which makes keyboard positioning difficult and can be bothersome for the knees.

POINTER COMPATIBILITY: Good. The pedals can be used with any hand-held pointer that does not require a software driver.

SOFTWARE DRIVERS: Poor. The driver has many bugs. In particular, there is a small problem of selecting text in Dragon Speech pad.

3) Kinesis Foot Pedals

ERGONOMICS: Good. The pedal has a nice action. However, the side pedals (for right clicking) are hard to find with one's feet, and the main pedal is slightly too high off the ground.

POINTER COMPATIBILITY: Good. The pedals can be used with any hand-held pointer that does not require a software driver.

SOFTWARE DRIVERS: Good. Clicking and dragging works well. However, programming the pedals is difficult, and the drivers are (were?) only available for Windows 95/98.

4) The Homemade Solution.

DESCRIPTION: I made my own set of foot pedals attached to a standard (Microsoft) mouse. A description of how to do this is in the sorehand FAQ. That recipe has you buy foot pedals from Radio Shack; however, I made my own, low-lying, foot switches.

ERGONOMICS: Good. The switches have good action and are low to the ground (avoiding Achilles tendon strain). However, there is no natural rest position; so, I have a tendency to cock my foot over the switch for long periods of time, which can strain the ankle tendons.

POINTER COMPATIBILITY: Poor. The switches can only be used with the mouse to which they are connected.

SOFTWARE DRIVERS: None.

Also, from the Sorehand listserv, I found this message on creating your own a foot pedal mouse ...

WARNING! Making your foot pedal can be dangerous!
We do not know if the following works, and sodering should only be done under trained supervision. See ASSUMED SKILLS in the note below. If you fit those skills, or know of someone that does, then having your own made might be a great tool to fit your needs!

Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 08:35:35 -0500 From: Bob Morency

Click switches can be added to most any pointing device, mouse or track ball for $30 or so in materials. We've converter both. I saved instructions from a previous Sorehand post. Unfortunately I didn't save the author info. Sorry....

To add a foot switch to your mouse you will take your mouse apart, solder two wires to the terminals of the desired mouse switch and cut a notch in the housing (to prevent the wires to from interfering with reassembly of the mouse). To the other end of these wires you will solder a connector into which you can plug an off the shelf foot switch from Radio Shack. When done the mouse button can be "clicked" by using the foot switch or by using the original mouse button (i.e. adding the foot switch does not change the normal functioning of the mouse).

For those who know a little about electronics: You are going to connect a second switch (i.e., the foot switch) in parallel with the existing mouse button switch. Having done so, either switch can be used to close the button circuit.

NOTE: The foot switch will wear out after several months, depending on your level of use. When this happens, simply unplug the dead switch and plug in a new one.

ASSUMED SKILLS: These instructions assume that you know how to use an ohm meter and that you know how to use a soldering iron. If you don't have these skills, don't panic; you probably know a dozen people who do. Try to find someone who works with electronics, fixes their own car, or does their own electrical wiring in their house to help you.

PARTS LIST: (1) Remote Foot Switch (Radio Shack Cat. No. 44-610) $3.99 each

(1) 3/32 " enclosed, closed circuit phone jack (Radio Shack Cat. No. 274-247) $1.99 for package of two

4 ft. small gage (i.e. small diameter), two conductor wire ( or two 4 ft. lengths of single conductor wire)

TOOLS: small Philips head screwdriver ohm meter wire strippers soldering iron (one with a fairly small tip) solder file or small drill (see step 10)

STEPS:

1. Turn off your computer.

2. DISCONNECT THE MOUSE FROM THE COMPUTER.

3. Remove the ball and its retaining disk from the underside of the mouse.

4. Remove all the screws from the underside of the mouse. Carefully separate the two halves of the mouse housing.

5. Look at the mouse circuit board and find the switch for the mouse button you want to add the foot switch to. In my mouse it is a black block shaped piece of plastic with an orange button on top. Basically, if you find something that clicks when you push it, that's a switch.

6. Remove the screws that mount the circuit board to the mouse housing(there may not be any screws. If so, look for molded in snap fingers,i.e. little flexible arms of plastic which lock the board in place. If there are snap fingers, carefully bend them back (one at a time) until you have worked the board free).

7. Look at the underside of the circuit board. Find the solder pads located directly below the switch you are adding the foot switch to.

8. Set the ohm meter to measure resistance. Hold the meter probes against the two solder pads that you think are associated with the switch and simultaneously press the switch button. If you have the correct solder pads, the resistance should drop to zero while the button is depressed and should become extremely large when you release the button. If you aren't getting these results, test different combinations of solder pads until you do.

9. Solder one wire to each of the switch pads. Make sure that the wires are directed towards the front of the mouse (i.e. where the existing mouse wire enters the mouse) and that they lay as flat against the bottom of the electronics board as possible (you don't want the wires to prevent the board from fitting back into the mouse housing). Make sure that you don't inadvertently create a short circuit between solder pads; clip off any excess wire protruding from the joints and check for solder bridges (i.e. excess solder which runs from one pad to another).

10. You need to cut a notch or drill a hole in the front edge of the mouse housing for the wires to pass through (otherwise the mouse will not go back together properly). Put this near the existing mouse wire but make sure that the way you do this doesn't interfere with the proper functioning of the mouse switches or the proper reassembly of the mouse. (A file is a good tool for making a notch).

11. Solder a wire to each of the outer terminals of the phone jack (Radio Shack part no. 274-247). Ignore the middle terminal; you don't need it. (NOTE: if you drilled a hole in the previous step, make sure that you thread the wires through this hole BEFORE you solder to the phone jack).

12. Plug in the foot switch and use the procedure described in step 8 above to test both it and the mouse button. When either switch is depressed, there should be zero resistance between the solder pads. When neither switch is depressed, there should be very large resistance between the pads. If this is not the case, check for accidental short circuits and double check that you have soldered to the correct pads.

13. Reassemble the mouse. Spirally wrap the to wires around the length of the mouse cord. This will keep the wires from getting in your way as you use the mouse.

14. Plug the mouse back into your computer.

15. Start your computer and test the mouse.

SPECIAL NOTES FOR MICROSOFT MOUSE OWNERS:

(note: some of these instructions may apply to other mice if they are similar in design to the Microsoft Mouse).

Step 6 requires you to remove the circuit board from the mouse. For the Microsoft mouse you will have to remove the encoder wheels before this can the done. To remove the encoder wheels use your thumb nail to carefully bend the support closest to the wheel away from the wheel while pulling up on the wheel shaft. The encoder wheel/shaft will pop out. After you have removed both encoder wheel/shaft pieces, remove the circuit board by carefully deflecting the two snap fingers located between the screw hole posts while pulling up on the board.

To reassemble the mouse in Step 13 snap the circuit board back in, then snap the encoder wheels back into place ( press the wheel end of shaft into place first, then snap the other end of the shaft into place).

USING THE FOOT SWITCH

I have found the following arrangement to be most comfortable for me. I rest the middle of the arch of my foot on the 1.5 inch tall support (a length of 3/4 x1.5 wood) which lets me keep my foot in a comfortable, level position. To actuate the primary ( i.e. most frequently used) switch I briefly tip my heel down. To actuate the secondary switch by briefly tip the ball of my foot down. The piece of wood supports the weight of your leg between mouse clicks. Without a support, you have to use your muscles to hold up your foot and / or leg so that the weight of your leg does not actuate the switch. This is very tiring. With the support muscle action is only required when you actuate one of the foot switches.

____________

| |

| |

| | secondary foot switch, actuated by ball of foot

| |

|__________|

____________

|__________| support,1.5 inches tall (middle of arch of foot rests

here)

____________

| |

| |

| | primary foot switch, actuated by heel

| |

|__________|

DISCLAIMER:

I have performed modifications on two computer mice with no resulting damage to either the mice or computers. I have used a foot switch with these computers for 1 and 1/2 years without developing any related foot problems. However, in these times it is necessary to append the following paragraph to what I have said above.

I have checked these instructions over and believe them to be accurate and detailed enough for others to successfully add a foot switch to their mice if the instructions are properly followed. However, I in no way guarantee these instructions and furthermore take no responsibility for any damage or loss to person, property or organization resulting from or related to the use of these instructions. Neither do I take responsibility for any problems any individual develops as a result of using a foot switch.

That said, good luck. ----------------------

WARNING! Making your foot pedal can be dangerous!
We do not know if the following works, and sodering should only be done under trained supervision. See ASSUMED SKILLS (above). If you fit those skills, or know of someone that does, then having your own made might be a great tool to fit your needs!

Your right hand is operating the keyboard, your left hand is operating the mouse! The bad news is, many neat track ball mice, are for the right hand only. I like the track balls, they are the best for my personal disability, and are most often, but not always, best for others. But, not to worry, there are many less expensive trackballs devices for the left hand that won't hurt your pocket book too badly.

I found several for you at Amazon.com.These range from $19 - $69

If you can use your right hand as Mouse Master, you are lucky! Most mice are meant to be used by the right hand! Just go to any computer store, and have fun trying them out! Or, just go to Amazon.com, see the many neat trackballs you have available! Click here trackballs

Help Creating A Mouse Just For You - the One Hand Typist!

I received e-mail from someone who would like to help people who need a special mouse. He tells me he does not want much money, he just wants to be helpful. So, here is his contact. I have not yet had anyone tell me they have worked with this person. So, if you do, give me some feed back :)

In a message dated 7/27/01 2:09:08 PM, jc_simpson64@yahoo.com writes:

Hello Lilly

Up to now, 5 computer mouses down the line money has never been involved between me and the users. I suppose if I have to make a lot I might have to ask $5 to cover the basic cost.

This is not for profit, I just want to help. I bought 2 used mouses today for $6 as they are going to be taken apart anyhow, so the cost isn't a problem.

I still hope I can be of some help.

J.C.