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sheepthechicken

New member
Joined
Dec 22, 2014
Messages
5
Reason
CALS
Country
US
State
CT
City
Bristol
Hi everyone,

My dad asked for a computer mouse for Christmas and I'm having trouble finding one that might meet his needs. He's having trouble moving the mouse around because of some mobility loss from his shoulder as well as with clicking (he specifically asked for one with a "larger left button"). I was looking at vertical mice but it looks like they might pose the same movement issue? His wrist movement is still pretty ok, so perhaps a joystick-type mouse might work?

Thanks!
 
The joystick might work but I couldn't keep my hand up on it. The ability to keep using a computer requires far more than a particular type of mouse. Check here for a whole list of things that have kept me computing as my ALS progressed:Computer Tips
 
my husband has dasher on his computer and a smart nav so he can use a reflective dot on his hat to move the mouse. we put a regular ball mouse on a stand on the floor and he uses his foot/toes to right click. they sell bigger special foot mouses with large buttons but that was not as easy for my husband as the smart nav.
 
i been doing about like what barbie is doing with the mouse. with the typing use a stick in my mouth. don't know how much more time im going to have with that. i tried the free download for the eye ware. it wouldn't work right for me.
 
My mum used an ordinary Bluetooth mouse on a tray on her lap. First she had to adapt the settings to a right click, then she progressed to using software called "dwell clicker". She was able to use this by directing the mouse from the shoulder most days, although sometimes she struggled and we resorted to low tech solutions such as the "Speakbook" - a free communication aid that can be downloaded from the internet.

We had Tracker pro which is a headmouse.

There was also a switch on a mounted arm - the computer software would scan to letters/words and mum would use her head to press the switch to select what she wanted.

Finally we also trialled "Camera Mouse", which is free software with "staggered speech" and "midas touch" keyboards. All can be found on the internet.

It depends on how much/little the person can do which solution will help the most and for how long.
 
An inexpensive solution for now might be a bluetooth trackpad like the Apple Magic Trackpad. Don't need shoulders, tap surface (anywhere) instead of button to click, much less force, move finger(s) slightly to scroll. I used to use a vertical mouse myself but don't think that would be the answer for him.
 
Just for clarification mum used her hand to hold the mouse throughout but as she started to lose movement in her arm she was able to still move the mouse by using her shoulder more than her arm.
 
or a trackball might work ...
 
Having used both a trackball and trackpad, I find the pad takes less fine motor skills in starting and stopping a movement, for me anyway.
 
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