Alternative Input Projects and Products

On Screen Keyboards and Switch programs

Open Source

  • GOK Full featured OSK Linux
  • SAW Full featured OSK Win32
  • onBoard minimal OSK uses SVG Linux
  • Hawking Toolbar Firefox add on for switch browsing.
  • LSR - screen reader but has flexible input device and scripting support Linux
  • Sue Center - OSK and environment

Closed Source

Other projects and research

Some programs use input devices in novel ways or provide new functionality such as symbols

Of Note

The current market is focused on Windows and proprietary solutions in manufactures, provision and support. Two good FOSS general switch scanning programs exist -- GOK on Linux and SAW on Windows. The community appear to be unaware of GOK and its advanced features designed by experienced developers and adaptive technology trainers.

The GOK maintainers feel it now needs to be refactored / rearchitected, have a visual refresh and should become cross platform. They have also expressed a desire to use Python. The lack of Windows and Mac support further limits its adoption. One thing that GOK has shown, however, is the possibility of presenting switch users options gleaned from the user interface, rather than a simple keyboard where difficult keystroke combinations must be simulated for each action. GOK also has predictive text entry. It depends on Gnome libraries. After extensive discussions with the authors of GOK, we are choosing not to extend GOK, because of the clear need for refactoring the codebase for flexibility and new features. However, the group believes it is achievable and desirable to reuse parts of GOK as wrapper Python libraries.

SAW has been developed over many years for switch users by staff at the Ace Centre who have extensive clinical experience. It has many advanced features including graphics and declarative layouts design. Although SAW is open source, it is dependent on Microsoft Visual C and MFC. It is not cross platform and and it's current design may not lend itself to easy refactoring.

The Grid is a very popular proprietary program from Sensory Software and offers many features that focus on it being a communications package.

Another interesting case is a Firefox extension called the Hawking Toolbar. While the Hawking toolbar does not allow for text input (and thus is not a complete solution), it shows the value of in-application scanning. That is, the actual scanning bar does not highlight options in a separate keyboard taking up valuable screen real estate. Instead, the options in the Firefox UI itself are highlighted. This is a much more direct and natural way of selecting program features and browsing the web. The Hawking Toolbar is a Firefox Extension whereas a long term goal of this proposal is to create a solution that will work with any program. However some of the Hawking Toolbar code may be usable.

For text input, we can learn a lot from Dasher. Dasher is a cross-platform assistive technology. Although Dasher is something best seen demonstrated rather than explained, it shows the benefit of creative input methods and word prediction. Dasher allows users to enter letters by steering using only 'left' and 'right' controls. As letters are selected, the probability of the next letter affects the size of the region which grows to meet the mouse pointer. Dasher users have been able to type 25 words per minute. On Linux Dasher also allows control of applications by selecting menu items.

The WWAAC accessible browser project identified many of the requirements of an accessible browser, especially for users with multiple impairments, including tailorable UI designs, integrated support for navigation and access to content, enhanced by speech, visual cuing and options for graphic symbol representation

OnBoard, formerly SOK, is a new light weight OSK from Ubuntu without switch functionality, though there are plans to add it. It has attractive visuals created using Cairo. Although its feature set is still very primitive and the agenda seems rather different, we are currently considering the offer of the developers to collaborate.

Drake Music Project's E-Scape music composition and performance program is worth a mention as a program that makes complex operations possible via alternative input devices using options built directly into the GUI.