Keyboard Accessibility for Mac OS X -- In his TidBITS series on accessibility for disabled Macintosh users, Joe Clark bemoaned the state of adaptive technology in Mac OS X. Last week's release of KeyStrokes for Mac OS X from the Dutch company Niemeijer Consult could help improve Mac OS X's position in the adaptive technology world. KeyStrokes displays a graphical keyboard on the screen; users type by positioning the cursor over letters and clicking the button of a mouse, trackball, head pointer, or other pointing device. For those who can position the cursor but can't click a button, KeyStrokes provides a system-wide "dwell-based" utility that enables clicking, double-clicking, and click-and-drag by holding the cursor motionless for a short period of time over the desired target. Text can be entered into any application in Mac OS X, even those running in Classic. U.S. and international keyboard layouts are available and the program supports Command-key combinations, dead keys (for accents), and modifier key-click combinations. KeyStrokes for Mac OS X costs $200 and includes a copy of KeyStrokes 2.2 for System 7.1 through Mac OS 9.2; volume and upgrade discounts are available. For those who want to try it first, there's a fully functional demo. [ACE]

<http://www.assistiveware.com/keystrokes.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/series/1189>