Robert Dale is a Quadriplegic and looks at whether this tablet would be right for him. His review relates to this review that we did on the Mecer Slate.
My first with touch-screen technology & tablet/slate hardware format! I’m no IT fundi, but rather my observations from whether its user friendly in terms of a disabled user, especially with limited upper-limb ability & diminished motor skills. I battle in terms of both, I only have 30% use of my arms & 10% of my hands, thus my arms get tired quickly & then the minor-motor skills become increasingly difficult as my arms become shaky & difficult to place short, thick sausage-like fingers on a very sensitive screen. Having said that I was really impressed, as stated I have nothing to compare with. The touch screen capabilities are fun & very easy in terms of transition, it’s a slate so on-board hard-drive not adequate but with the compact external hard drives you can plug into this, why complain.
I use a virtual keyboard “ Click-N-Type” – the touch screen now offers the same but its too sensitive (never happy!) – I did search the control panel to see if the technology is of such that you can adjust the sensitivity or even a delay setting on the key strokes, thinking here of no need to lift my hand but slide over keyboard, hovering over desired key, fraction of a second before next key. To an able-bodied user this might sound like asking for a down scale but it will help those with diminished motor skills. I’ll search the web and might find a downloadable touch screen keyboard application that will assist here.
There is a stylus, that is a thumbs up as most people with limited or no hand-use, “MacGyver” (make something-from-nothing) a form of hand/finger strapping to hold eating utensils, pens etc. I know a quadriplegic who has limited arm usage but no hand usage, he straps two chopsticks to his hands to type. I even strap a table tennis paddle to my hand & give it a go. I can imagine a stylus/pen making it a lot easier & with practise a bit faster even for a quadriplegic.
Previously on-board voice recognition software was unreliable & cumbersome, only large, expensive software packages really work, but trial and error finding the right one makes its undesirable & unaffordable to pursue! But the Windows 7 Speech recognition is great for my use, even in Excel, as I predominantly “live” there.
I must say that overall it is definitely worthwhile looking at & because of size, applications i.e. communication and leisure/entertainment – all it can offer in one it has to be said that PC users with disabilities in their upper extremities will find this format more “disabled user-friendly” or rather user friendly for disabled.
Much appreciated
Regards
Robert Dale
