Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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What is your finger placement on keyboard? (self.Blind)
submitted by DrustRay
Hi, I'm trying to develop a keyboard on the touchscreen for blind or low vision people, but I want to have some survey to see how the users are generally place their fingers when typing on a keyboard.
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Do you follow the standard finger placement when typing on a keyboard (for example, if you learnt typing from school)? If not , what placement do you use?
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The standard placement is as follows:
for the left hand: pinky for q a z, ring for w s x, middle for e d c, and index for r f v t g b
for the right hand: pinky for p, ring for o l, middle for i k, and index for y h n u j m
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basically each finger takes care of one column and the two index fingers take care of two columns each.
​
Thanks in advance for your reply!
​
Do you follow the standard finger placement when typing on a keyboard (for example, if you learnt typing from school)? If not , what placement do you use?
​
The standard placement is as follows:
for the left hand: pinky for q a z, ring for w s x, middle for e d c, and index for r f v t g b
for the right hand: pinky for p, ring for o l, middle for i k, and index for y h n u j m
​
basically each finger takes care of one column and the two index fingers take care of two columns each.
​
Thanks in advance for your reply!
Individual-Fan1639 2 points 1y ago
If you want to make a keyboard for people that are blind, would you consider making one that is like Swype?
I have not always been blind, but I am totally now. I think that a keyboard that incorporated VoiceOver to read the letter you’re on, then allowed you to quickly swipe out words by having VO do a callout if your finger stopped would be nice.
Blind people don’t really position their hands differently than you do. I think that you are missing a big factor here which is screen readers. To accommodate for us, you really need to do two things in regard to keyboards. You need to be accessible with the screen readers natively on smart phones, voice over and talk back, Apple and android respectively, and then you also need to add magnification for people that are not totally blind. Optional inversion of colors would probably be helpful as well.
The big thing is that you can’t use a cool keyboard like swipe because it is it accessible with voiceover. I would absolutely pay for one of these keyboards if it were accessible with voiceover.
I have not always been blind, but I am totally now. I think that a keyboard that incorporated VoiceOver to read the letter you’re on, then allowed you to quickly swipe out words by having VO do a callout if your finger stopped would be nice.
Blind people don’t really position their hands differently than you do. I think that you are missing a big factor here which is screen readers. To accommodate for us, you really need to do two things in regard to keyboards. You need to be accessible with the screen readers natively on smart phones, voice over and talk back, Apple and android respectively, and then you also need to add magnification for people that are not totally blind. Optional inversion of colors would probably be helpful as well.
The big thing is that you can’t use a cool keyboard like swipe because it is it accessible with voiceover. I would absolutely pay for one of these keyboards if it were accessible with voiceover.
DrustRay [OP] 1 points 1y ago
That would be a cool idea with swipe! I saw several research projects that tried to incorporate voiceover with swipe. I hope there will be some time where swipe works smoothly with screen readers
Fridux 2 points 1y ago
I touch-type, and learned it by myself as a kid, because I liked to watch the cursor move on the screen as I entered text, so the way I do it isn't exactly optimal, as I only use 2 to 3 fingers of each hand for typing. What I do is essentially try to find the little bumps on the F and J keys in order to position myself comfortably relative to the keyboard and rely on muscle memory to type, moving my forearms as necessary to reach the keys.
When I went blind, the teachers at the rehabilitation center tried to teach me how to type correctly, but since I type at a reasonable rate without making many typos they just gave up.
I absolutely hate to type on a touch-screen, and when I have to do so, like when I have to use the Discord client on iOS because its accessibility on MacOS is a pile of turd, I just connect this iMac's keyboard to my iPhone and use it as if it was an actual computer.
When I went blind, the teachers at the rehabilitation center tried to teach me how to type correctly, but since I type at a reasonable rate without making many typos they just gave up.
I absolutely hate to type on a touch-screen, and when I have to do so, like when I have to use the Discord client on iOS because its accessibility on MacOS is a pile of turd, I just connect this iMac's keyboard to my iPhone and use it as if it was an actual computer.
DrustRay [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thanks for telling your experience!
retrolental_morose 2 points 1y ago
I use the position as you describe with a physical qwerty keyboard.
My hands are too big - or my phone's screen too small, however you want to look at it - to do the same. If I have to use that layout on my phone I tend to hunt&peck with a single finger. My typing speed is considerably slower on a touchscreen of course. I'd rate the 1 finger method slowest of all, then using the slide-to-type method introduced a few years ago, then finally my preferred typing-style of choice - Braille input. Even the 6 fingers for braille crowd my screen sometimes though.
My hands are too big - or my phone's screen too small, however you want to look at it - to do the same. If I have to use that layout on my phone I tend to hunt&peck with a single finger. My typing speed is considerably slower on a touchscreen of course. I'd rate the 1 finger method slowest of all, then using the slide-to-type method introduced a few years ago, then finally my preferred typing-style of choice - Braille input. Even the 6 fingers for braille crowd my screen sometimes though.
DrustRay [OP] 2 points 1y ago
Thanks for the answer! Yeah I do realize the small screen for phones --- I'm planning doing this for the larger screens such as a tablet, or like common kiosk machines. Thanks a lot for the info again!
retrolental_morose 2 points 1y ago
well I'm just one person, so hopefully you'll get more answers.
If people are anything like me, adapting to a different screen will be complicated anyway. I'd not just assume because I had the room I could engage all my fingers on a capacitive screen - typing blind has always been a very tactile, feedback-driven process. You can find the buttons of the keyboard without pressing them, is what I think it boils down to.
If people are anything like me, adapting to a different screen will be complicated anyway. I'd not just assume because I had the room I could engage all my fingers on a capacitive screen - typing blind has always been a very tactile, feedback-driven process. You can find the buttons of the keyboard without pressing them, is what I think it boils down to.
codeplaysleep 1 points 1y ago
I touch-type like you're supposed to on a standard QWERTY keyboard.
On my phone, I mostly use gesture typing with my right thumb.
On my phone, I mostly use gesture typing with my right thumb.
Rethunker 1 points 1y ago
Are you already aware that for those who read Braille, there are Braille input modes? Is your idea a spin-off of that?
DrustRay [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Hi, yeah I'm aware of the braille keyboard input. However this one is intended for typing with full fingers on a big screen such as tablet. Also for those who might be not yet familiar with braille.
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