Wrists on Fire? Tech Gear for What Ails You
By Greiner, Lynn; Toronto Globe and Mail,Publication Date: January 27, 2011
Article features a program implemented at a bank in Toronto, Canada, to provide assistive devices for its employees with disabilities to aid them in the workplace. An assistive technology lab at the Toronto-Dominion Bank evaluates its employees with physical disabilities and supplies them with assistive technology as needed, including (1) a smaller than normal keyboard minimizing the range of motion required in typing, and Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software to reduce keyboarding time, for a credit analyst diagnosed with repetitive strain injury in her hands; (2) for employees with low vision and reduced hand function, the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, which slopes to position hands at a comfortable angle and offers a Zoom Slider for enlarging items on the computer screen, and the X-Keys Desktop, a 20 key programmable keypad that allows up to 900 steps to be executed in a single keystroke; (3) for people who have to switch mousing hands because of injury or arthritis, the Kensington Expert Mouse trackball, the Microsoft Comfort Mouse designed for use in either hand, and the 3M EM500GPS Ergonomic Optical Mouse, a joystick that functions as a pointing controller; (4) an inexpensive webcam enabling a deaf operations service officer to access a remote interpretation service to assist her in interactions with colleagues; the employee also has received a teletypewriter that lets her make and receive phone calls and uses Microsoft Communicator, an instant messenger, to chat with fellow workers; and (5) for vision impaired employees, the combination of a compatible scanner and Kurzweil’s text to speech software to “read” printed and electronic documents, and the JAWS screen reader which is also capable of output to a Braille reader.
Assistive Products Discussed: KURZWEIL 1000
DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING
X-KEYS DESKTOP
JAWS FOR WINDOWS
EXPERT MOUSE
EXPERT MOUSE (MODEL K64325)
3M ERGONOMIC MOUSE (MODELS EM500GPL, EM500GPS, EM550GPL, & EM550GPS)
NATURAL ERGONOMIC KEYBOARD 4000 (MODEL B2M-00012)
Published by: CTVglobemedia Inc. (Website:http://www.ctvglobemedia.com/)
Link to text: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/business-categories/biz-categories-technology/article1883463/
