Field Report #5: How To Make the Most Out of Not Having Any Hands
Categories:
well, almost...
Been a bit rough with the limited use i have of my hands due to some RSI catching up with me, but in the meantime, i have been learning a buttload about assistive technologies and alternative ways to navigate around the computer without use of my hands (or at least drastically reduced - typing is still troublesome though).
I'm a pretty avid Firefox user and have reprogrammed a few of the keys on my keyboard to open tabs, close tabs, click on links with just my voice, go back a page and go forward a page - he most basic and oft used actions one does when online.
if you're interested, you can read more about my findings here:
http://www.ctcvista.org/node/1097
Anita Lie also made a great post to the wiki on other assistive technologies here:
http://www.ctcvista.org/node/1098
Sitewise, my workplan has a adjusted a bit to compensate for less typing/web work so i have been on the phone a lot gearing up for our upcoming conference in October. I've had the wonderful opportunity to talk with media artists and arts org directors from around the country regarding their 'positive core stories' of the media arts field - some have been working with video for nearly 30 years!
I'm essentially collecting images to add to our Media Arts Movement Timeline. Feel free to browse and/or add stories here:
http://mediaartsmovement.org/index.pl?task=timeline_view
that's it for now. must. stop. typing...
Comment from Jack Waugh on October 2, 2007 - 12:04pm
Maybe those of us who haven't yet started to experience symptoms of repetitive motion problems should use the techniques you and Anita have found anyway, to try to avoid starting to have problems?
In my case, I work in a room with others, so talking to my computer would be disturbing to them.
Comment from Morgan Sully on October 2, 2007 - 2:20pm
absolutely. i wish i had followed some of these techniques sooner and stuck with them. It's certainly going to be a lifestyle change. I'm also going to takeup swimming as many computer workers tend to hae little upper body strength (i mean it DOES take endurance strength to be able to sit up at a computer all day) - breaks are always good too of course.