!a11y@programming.dev is a community for discussing digital accessibility, sharing techniques and best practices, and talking about accessibility experiences; both good and bad.
Digital accessibility is the practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, digital systems by people with disabilities. This involves designing and developing websites, mobile applications, software, hardware, and other digital platforms in a way that they can be used by individuals with a range of abilities, including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.
Digital accessibility not only benefits those with disabilities but also enhances the overall user experience, making digital content more usable and understandable for all. In many jurisdictions, it's a legal requirement under disability discrimination laws.
Key components of digital accessibility include accessible website design, multimedia with features like captions or transcripts, properly formatted digital documents, and accessible software and apps. It also extends to hardware design.
When my nerves started acting up because my job forces me to use the same key combination a lot I built myself a 'mouse board'. I slaughtered a cheap computer mouse, transferred the buttons to a footrest made of plywood, reassigned some keys with X-mouse and could now survive hours of doing mouse clicks and 'Ctrl + C' by doing them with my feet!
While the commercial model has stupidly heavy foot pedals my version works on a toe tap. It's almost like dancing.
For me it's always my left arm's fingers that get tired first, especially the pinky and the ones close to it.
I have now resorted to using the right shift and rebinded my right alt to act as the control key on top of using it as a special modifier key for certain actions.
While holding Right-Alt:
h j k l = arrows,
w b = word-jump (Ctrl-arrow),
0 4 = Home / End,
u d = PgUp / PgDn,
; = esc
x = Delete
Shift-x = Ctrl-Delete,
Backspace = Ctrl-Backspace,
Enter = left-click.
All the other keys act as if I click Ctrl. Like RAlt +y = Ctrl + y...
There's also one more key near the Right-Alt that I don't know what it's called, but I rebinded it to be Ctrl + Shift. All of my terminals navigation commands are Ctrl + Shift.
In neovim I even binded Space +w to click Ctrl +w cuz Right-Alt + w is word jump. And I use window navigation really often.
I also have caps-lock binded to esc but don't use it that much. 3 ways to press esc for me (4 in neovim cuz I have jj = esc). π
This has helped me tremendously.
That is so cool.
If you could share an image it would be awesome
Made a post about it, because it has been such a good gadget for me. Sorry the rotten photos, cellphone camera is kicking the bucket
Haha that is so sick. Thanks.
I have experienced a traumatic injury of a wrist that results in chronic pain, so I had to build a similar setup for myself to continue working.
More than that - if you work as a dev for a company, you are likely to use a company-provided laptop, which is often a Mac - so I use Aerospace instead of sway/i3 and configure everything in Nix.
I also use an ergosplit kbd - this is what prevents me from being in pain all the time.
Awesome. I'll add Aerospace to the alternatives, thanks.
Ergo keyboards are out of my budget unfortunately (400$ advantage 360 is ~2 months work here, let alone importing it)
Good advice. I splashed out on the kinesis advantage. A two week holiday and switching to the ergo keyboard cured my tennis elbow. It's very expensive and took a long time to get used to but I wouldn't go back.
I also installed Tridactyl Firefox extension for vim bindings. I don't use it often but it is handy when you are coding in vim and need to keep switching to a browser to read documentation.
Edit: The annoying thing about the kinesis is that it only comes in US layout. So when I use it as a UK device I have to do some funny business to get a backslash.
Kinesis keyboards are sooo expensive. I'd buy one if I could, but I'm ok with the described setup for now.
Not the same but a vertical mouse can be a good start. They even make cheap ones (~$20 or 15 euros).
Yep vertical mouse is also pretty good.
I have a rapoo MT750s which is vertical-ish. Although, I rarely use the mouse at all with my setup.
Ergo Keyboard donβt have to be expensive. A Ferris sweep used goes for around 50β¬, 100β¬ from kit or 150β¬ prebuilt.
Can't get them simply in my region. Unless I wait for someone that's coming home from over seas and ask them to bring me one. It'll be ~200 after tax and transport.
And it's way too minimal for my taste and usage.
but it's a pretty cool project
Never heard of Kmonad.
I've been using keyd which seems to be the same at first glance.
Maybe I'll check Kmonad out at some point when I'm not feeling too lazy.
Hmmm.
I haven't used keyd but at a glance it seems like its more lightweight than Kmonad, the lispy configuration syntax of Kmonad is nice imo. It also doesn't support keyup keydown events and overall I suggest it provides less level of configuration than Kmonad and is simpler.
This is a great and very informative write-up! I really appreciate it. I don't currently have a functioning computer due to the poverty that comes with disabilities and all that, but I hope that if I ever do, I remember your post! I have it bookmarked now. I'll also be sharing it with a friend who may find it useful. Thank you for sharing this with us! :)
I'm so happy to hear that, thank you!
I hope you get a great computer and some of my tips help you have a better, healthier computing experience.