[gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard

[Joel Deutsch]

Hi Pam,
and Happy New year. As the laptop's not my sole computer, and it has a num 
pad, I'm pretty determined to develop a passable level of skill with it 
eventually, howevermuch it confounds me and my fingers still.

So I'll just keep practicing, until I don't have to pick my way around it 
anymore but can type sort of as I do on a normal keyboard, without fearing 
that I'll make a whole lot of mistakes and then have to feel around to 
figure out how to select and delete them. For the moment, it's as 
frustrating as the month I spent trying to learn Braille and then gave it 
up, as I hadn't much use for it but was just trying to be an all-around 
blind skills guy.

We'll see.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George and Pamela Dominguez" <geodom at optonline.net>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 4:50 AM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Still hassling with my laptop keyboard


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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