[gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard

[George and Pamela Dominguez]

For comfort, and if I need to make doubly sure, I use a USB keyboard.  But 
when I take the computer somewhere, I use its keyboard.  I am better at it 
than I used to be.  Mine doesn't even have a numberpad.  I would like that. 
That is part of the time why I use the external keyboard, if I think I will 
need the numberpad for something.  Pam.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Deutsch" <jdeutsch at dslextreme.com>
To: "GUI-Talk" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:14 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
>
>
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