[gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard

[Gerardo Corripio]

Hi Joel and listers: I've used a laptop with its built-in keyboard since 
December 2005. coming from having used a desktop since december of 98, 
during the first few weeks it was kind of frustrating, even more having to 
learn Jaws's laptop keyboard layout having the laptop no number pad, so Joel 
be thankful that your laptop does have a number pad, or your frustratinos 
would have been even greater! I use my laptop as my only machine and have 
gotten used to the laptop keyboard keeping in mind the keys are a bit 
smaller than the desktop keyboard, so have patience and if you ask me a few 
months from now surely you'll tell us how you should have bought a laptop 
sooner!
Gerardo
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Deutsch" <jdeutsch at dslextreme.com>
To: "GUI-Talk" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 2:14 PM
Subject: [gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard


Hi listers,

Okay, please come clean. I know some of us are totally blind and some are
partial. I'm partial, myself, but I have no central vision thus can't read
at all with my eyes. Only with Jaws, recorded literature, and so forth. So
in dealing with this new machine of mine, which I'd hoped would be a handy
tool, I'm at a loss.

I thought I'd be able to get the hang of the keyboard with some effort. it's
an Acer with a number key pad so I don't have to learn the Jaws laptop key
commands.

but still there's no space between the keys and the sections of keys as I'm
accustomed to on a normal keyboard, and no matter how patiently I sit and
turn on Jaws Keyboard Help to explore and get the lay of the land, so to
speak, I just am finding it nearly impossible to operate the machine.

Please bear in mind that I'm a pretty damn good touch typist, plus a Jaws
user from way back with the current release. Ordinary stuff like that is not
impeding me. But try as I might, my fingers just can't figure out where keys
are, except in small, lucky instances and a few keys I happen to have taught
myself by now. I don't think this is gonna work.

I know I can get a USB keyboard to plug into this laptop, then set the
computer within earshot and sit back with only the keyboard on my lap. But
this ain't what I'd daydreamed about. I guess I didn't anticipate
realistically how tough this would be to do blind.

Please just tell the truth, guys. I think a number of you are using laptops,
at least as your secondary computers. How many of you actually use your
laptops (mine's an Acer PC, for what that matters) normally, and how many
use an auxiliary keyboard? Am I in a very low-skill class, sort of, if I
can't figure out how to type on something like this the way sighted people
do with their own laptops?

Ug. Bummed out. thanks for any helpful feedback.
and Happy New Year.

Joel


_______________________________________________
gui-talk mailing list
gui-talk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
gui-talk:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/gera1027%40gmail.com