NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS, TECHNOLOGY, ACCESSIBILITY

Using Touch Sensitive Buttons on Modern Notebooks without Sight

Many (perhaps the majority of) notebook/laptop computers now have a strip of touch sensitive keys above the normal keyboard. These keys are not tactile in any way and, depending on the computer, provide such things as multimedia controls (volume, mute, play, stop, etc.), toggles for wireless radios and other special functions. I've always been concerned about how I would access such controls without any sight. Unfortunately, in my search for a new mnotebook, all of the notebooks which interested me included them, so I decided to just live with it. I bought an Acer Aspire 3935 which, among other things, has touch sensitive keys to toggle bluetooth and wifi. I began to ponder ways to place some sort of tactile marker on or near these keys so I can find them. However, it recently occurred to me that there's already a perfectly good tactile locator for these keys: the function keys on the normal keyboard, which lie immediately beneath the touch sensitive strip. For example, on my computer, the key for toggling bluetooth is just above the f11 key, so all I have to do is locate the f11 key and move my finger directly up to hit the bluetooth toggle key. This is blindingly obvious in hindsight, but well... hindsight is a wonderful thing. :) Of course, sighted assistance may be required initially to find the keys if trial and error is insufficient.