December 2009

Training and Technical Assistance Center Old Dominion University TTAC/ODU

Assistive Technology Network Table of Contents ATN WELCOME TO THE ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER DE- SIGNED TO PROVIDE EDUCATORS WITH TIPS AND TRICKS WHEN INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES u To u c h s c r e e n t o Mo u s e Us e ...... 1

u Ma k i n g Ad a p t a t i o n s t o t h e Mo u s e & Cu r s o r . . 2 Going From u A Va r i e t y o f Mo u s e De v i c e s ...... 3 to Mouse Use

u Fr e e w a r e f o r Mo u s e Ad a p t a t i o n s ...... 4 Going from Touchscreen to Mouse use can be a challenging experi- u Te a c h i n g Mo u s e Sk i l l s ence for the student and the teacher. There are a multitude of skills Us i n g Po w e r Po i n t . . . 5 to know and steps to learn. Priory Woods describes the skills needed

u It e m s i n o u r Le n d i n g and has developed a “Small Steps Checklist” that may help you and Li b r a r y ...... 6 your students master this universally useful and functional activity of using a mouse device.

Other tips and tricks: • Place the mouse on a three ring binder so that the incline of the mouse matches the incline of the . When the student’s hand goes up the incline, so does the cursor. • Keep activities simple and successful using mouse-over before selections.

When talking about the peripheral, mouse, is the plural mouses or mice?

According to Wikipedia, the plural of mouse is mouses, mice, or mouse devices. All are acceptable.

Training and Technical Assistance Center Old Dominion University (TTAC/ODU) Making Adaptations to the Mouse and Cursor here are several adaptations, available within the Win- Tdows Control Panel, which enable the mouse easier to use. Go to Start>Control panel>Mouse and you will have five to six tabs of changes that can be made. On the tab Buttons, there are two modifications that could be beneficial: • Switch Primary and Secondary Buttons for Left-hand- ed users. • Turn on ClickLock which will enable you to drag with- out holding the mouse button. On the Pointers tab: • Change the mouse pointer speed to Slower

If you need to change the double click to a single click, go to Start>Control panel>Folder options>General tab and in the Click Items as Follows section, select the radio button for “Single click to open an item”. Mo u s e Pr o p e r t i e s Di a l o g Bo x

o change the mouse to be larger or a different color, you must first find a cursor that you want to Ttry. For a larger than needed selection, visit http://www.rw-designer.com/cursor-library. Most of the cur- sors you download will have a self install. If it does, then after installing, open Control Panel in Start menu, then double-click the Mouse icon and switch to Pointer tab. Here you can change the cursors used by Windows in different situations to the downloaded ones.

Cursors are small drawings with the file extension .cur, so if you find some cursors you would like to use and they do not self install, copy and paste the files into the cursor folder located in the Windows Folder on the C drive.

http://joescursors.tripod.com/HVCurPg.htm

rabe’s free cursors

Free from the ACE Centre

Training and Technical Assistance Center Old Dominion University (TTAC/ODU) 2 Variety of Mouse Devices

Sometimes a simple button will do; no scroll, no button choice, just a point & click. Now the option is available with Chester Mouse. Available from $16 - $25.

There are input devices that can be used from head to toe. The Er- goguys have over 60 varieties and here are a few:

Ch e s t e r Mo u s e

Jo y s t i c k Mo u s e Fi n g e r Mo u s e

Sw i t c h -Ad a p t e d Mo u s e

Fo o t Mo u s e

Bi g t r a c k Tr a c k b a l l

Fentek Inductries also has a large selection of input devices.

Mouse Tip:

If you have a mouse with a scroll button you can quickly zoom in and our with only two fingers! To zoom in hold down Ctrl and scroll the mouse button forward (the up motion). To zoom out hold the Ctrl and scroll the mouse button backward (the down motion).

Training and Technical Assistance Center Old Dominion University (TTAC/ODU) 3 Freeware for Mouse Adaptations If you need more than what is available in Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7, here are a few programs that are available at no cost:

Soundy Mouse 1.0 Soundy Mouse allows you to add sound to your mouse movement using the PC-Speaker. Addi- tionally, you can give your mouse more freedom with the mouse cursor wrapping technology. This technology allows your mouse to wrap around the screen from one side to the other, top to bottom and back again. Available at Network Activ.com.

Noisy Mouse 1.0 Noisy Mouse is a simple program that adds separate sounds to right, left, and middle mouse button actions. It adds the three selections to the Windows Sounds properties, allowing you to use the na- tive Control Panel applet to assign any of the three files included, or any .wav file your prefer. Noisy Mouse optionally resides in your system tray to provide access to editing the sounds or terminating the program anytime you don’t want to hear the sounds. If you enjoy having your computer narrate your mouse moves, this freeware program is for you. An even more practical use would be to associ- ate specific files with each click, so participants in learning sessions would be able to differentiate the left- and right-mouse clicks with auditory cues. Available from Leeos.com.

Funny Cursor 1.3 Makes your mouse cursor point to it´s direction. If you move the mouse to the right, it´ll point to the right too. Available at Download.com.

Mouse Tip: If you are left handed and want to change a mouse to suit you, then you can change the left click but- ton to right click, and so on... To change what your mouse buttons do go to the control panel, open the mouse icon, and here you can change all the settings for the mouse.

Training and Technical Assistance Center Old Dominion University (TTAC/ODU) 4 Teaching Beginning Mouse Skills Using Microsoft PowerPoint Many computer users grow up using the computer so easily that skills for navigating with a mouse are taken for granted. Many of us can quickly navigate to just about anything on the screen. For some people this is a skill that must be learned. Whether the person has a cognitive disability or motor in- volvement, there are easy ways to learn mouse skills. One way is to use Microsoft PowerPoint with a mouseover. By setting up a simple program using the mouse over hyperlink, the student can learn to move the mouse in different directions. Here are the instructions: 1. Open up the PowerPoint program and select New, Blank Slide. 2. Open up the Drawing Toolbar by going to View, Toolbars, and making sure there is a check beside Drawing. 3. On the Drawing Toolbar, select the square, then go to the PowerPoint slide. Click and drag to make a rectangular shape (vertically) on one/third of the slide. 4. To fill in with color, go to Format and click on Autoshape. 5. In the dialog box, make sure you are on the tab labeled Colors and Lines. 6. On the section that says Fill and Color: click on the inverted triangle and you will get a selection of colors. Choose a color, then click OK. 7. To put a hyperlink on that part of the slide, make sure it is active (it will have small squares around it called handles), go to SlideShow and click on Action Settings. 8. Click on the tab, Mouse Over. 9. In the section, Action on Mouse Over, select Hyperlink to: then click on the inverted triangle and select a PowerPoint presentation that is made for kids. Links to Electronic E-books work well to increase motivation. 10. Repeat the directions so that you have another one/third on the other side of the slide covered. Make a Mouse Over hyperlink to a different PowerPoint Book. Once the person can easily go from side to side, make four different sections and teach moving diagonally.

Freeware for Learning Mouse Skills Butterfly 2.0 Easy Flash program for moving the mouse. http://www.bestfreewaredownload.com/freeware/t-free-butterfly-freeware-zulefmwm.html A Few Online Games A FUN exercise for developing a click... http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf For small steps try... http://www.mouseprogram.com/ For a lot of games visit... http://www.pbclibrary.org/mousing/games.htm http://www.shambles.net/pages/school/mouse/ Training and Technical Assistance Center Old Dominion University (TTAC/ODU) 5 Items in our Lending Library for Learning Mouse Skills

The T-TAC/ODU Lending Library has a wide assortment of mouse devices and keyboards for varying needs. We also have tons of software that can be used to teach students mouse skills. You can visit our library at https://ttac.biblionix.com/atoz/catalog/.

T-TAC ODU Lending Library OPEN HOUSE January 27, 2010 3:00 - 6:00 PM 860 W. 44th St. Norfolk, VA 23508

We would like to know if you will be stopping by to see us. Please RSVP at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/rsvp

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