Logitech trackball and Kensington Trackball

Using a regular computer mouse has never been fun thing for me to do. My hand is gets uncomfortable from being in a unnatural position, I have difficulty pressing the buttons at the right time and most annoying is that I usually run out of desk space and end up dropping the mouse on the ground.

It was not until I got my first PC when I was starting college that I was introduce to a trackball. The first trackball system that I used was a Kensington Expert Mouse. As you can see the ball sits on a base and therea four buttons surrounding the ball. The base does not move allowing the user to focus on controlling cursor movements through moving just the ball, not the entire device. The four buttons on the base are for left clicks and right clicks but in some models the buttons can open different programs on the system.

The Logitech Trackman mouse is also a trackball system that I have used with a great deal of success.The design is more narrow so that the user can place their hand around the base or as I do just use the ball to move the cursors. Again the base does not move, allowing the user to just move the ball or click the buttons without the worry of running out of desk room as with a regular mouse.

For me, as an individual with Athetoid and Spastic Cerebral Palsy, these two trackball systems have been the answer to a lot of difficulties I had using a regular computer mouse. I could know cut and paste text without the worry of losing the text half way to its destination because my hand slipped off the mouse or because I was not able to drag and hold the buttons at the same time. Using the trackball system also allowed me to be on the computer for longer periods of time as my hand would not be as cramped up as it was with a regular mouse.

Many people use trackball systems for different reasons, not just physical disabilities. I have seen people who have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as it alleviates the pain on their wrists. Also those who have or are experiencing fine motor difficulties due to accidents or the onset of  disability. 

Technology when I was in High School

During the planning stages for transitioning from elementary to high school a number of things had to be taken into consideration. One of the bigger decisions was what writing tools would I be using. I had use a typewriter since I was in third grade but this was no longer going to be beneficial. With moving to a larger school and having rotation it was decided that I should have a laptop computer. It was a Toshiba 1000 and I remember how thrilled I was to be going to high school with my own laptop. In preparation for Grade 9, I took “Introduction to Keyboarding”, not that I needed to learn how to type but more so I could have time to familiarize myself with my new computer. I still did all the assignments required, just instead of using the typewriter I use my laptop. Taking this course allowed me to get out any of the bugs that I may encounter while using the computer. One example of this is due to my lack of fine motor coordination I always hit this one particular button by mistake ALL THE TIME. I do not recall what button it was, but I do remember that in order to fix the problem I had to turn the computer on and off again to get it to work. Because it was the summer there were no technicians around to consult with so the teacher and I had to problem solve for our self. One of the computer teachers did come by once or twice to see how things were going and it was then that we learned the power of the “ESC” button. I no longer needed to turn the computer on and off when I accidently hit wrong buttons.

As I started Grade 9 I now had one of the tools I needed to succeed. The computer had at disk drive and for my class work I would just save my work and then go to the resource room to print off my work. This wasted a great deal of time having to go back and forth from classes to resource to have work printed but that was the way it was. Some teachers allowed me to bring the work the next day which was great as then I could use my resource time to print off the day’s work as others wanted it right after class ended. Today it would be a lot different as a students can just email their work directly to the teacher,

My parents purchased a Toshiba 1000 for use at home which made it easier in that I did not have to carry the laptop back and forth. For most students carrying an extra 5 pounds would not be an issue, but for me the extra weight threw me off balance causing me to fall. Having a laptop both a school and at home meant that I only needed to bring my disks back and forth.

I used the laptop for the five years in high school and only a hand full of times did it break down. Unlike today where a student would hopefully be given a replacement while their computer was being fixed, I was left with nothing. This meant any class work I had to do had to either be handwritten by me (which meant it never got done on time), I would have to go to my resource teacher to have her scribe for me (which meant time away from the classroom) or I was able to take it home to finish, which was always my preference.

Again with another transition (to post-secondary) questions were asked, was the laptop doing what I needed it to or was it time again to look into a new piece of technology. In my next blog I’ll talk about my transition to post-secondary and my first encounter with Dragon.