Text entry via character stroke disambiguation for an adolescent with severe motor impairment and cortical visual impairment

Assist Technol. 2010 Winter;22(4):223-35. doi: 10.1080/10400435.2010.518580.

Abstract

This study proposed a single-switch text entry system by hierarchical scanning of character strokes for an 11-year-old girl with severe physical disabilities and low vision. She could only perceive magnified straight line segments and chords presented against high-contrast, colored backgrounds. In a descriptive case study, the participant used the proposed system in the community for 8 months. Assessment included theoretical evaluation of text entry performance and empirical evaluation of the participant's proficiency. The proposed system had a lower error-free text entry rate but comparable proneness to user error as a real-world implementation of row-column virtual scanning keyboard with character frequency layout. The participant's proficiency, in terms of mean number of single-switch activations and time to type one character, showed statistically significant improvements as the case study progressed. The proposed system feasibly addressed the participant's typing needs, in a context where traditional row-column scanning and codeword-based text entry systems were not successful.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cerebral Palsy / physiopathology
  • Cerebral Palsy / rehabilitation*
  • Child
  • Communication Aids for Disabled*
  • Disabled Children / rehabilitation*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • User-Computer Interface*
  • Vision, Low*