Striking Home

Spring 1996, Page 2

Classifieds

Bill Eaton is looking for a manual Dvorak typewriter. A second option is a technician who can convert his manual QWERTY typewriter to the Dvorak layout.
Contact Bill at 2311 Willamette St. Eugene, OR 97405.

Markell Raphaelson West is interested in buying a manual Dvorak typewriter.
Contact Markell at 115 Irvine St. Laurel, MD 20707.

Peter Biesemeyer has a 7 year old Silver Reed Typewriter with the Dvorak layout for sale.
Peter can be contacted at North Country Community College, Malone NY 12953.

Ms. Jovoone S. Smith is trying to locate a Dvorak typewriter, or someone who can modify an existing typewriter to the Dvorak layout. She is also interested in getting a Dvorak printwheel for an IBM or AT&T (Olivetti) typewriter.
She can be contacted at PO Box 7366, Chicago IL 60680-7366.

Have you got a Dvorak related product to buy, sell, or trade? Let us know what you have, or what you are looking for, and we will notify our readers. This space is provided as a service to our readers, and is not for commercial products. (If you have a commercial product to sell, contact us-our ad rates are shockingly low!)

From The Mailbox

From my experience in learning and using a one-handed Dvorak layout keyboard as a means of coping with my one-handed disability, I'm totally convinced that the one-handed Dvorak keyboard should be included as a standard part of all one hand disability rehab programs. I say this because of the relative ease it was for me to learn the one-handed Dvorak layout after a long time of using the standard QWERTY layout. No doubt about it-with one-handed Dvorak I can type as fast or faster that I could type on the computer using two-handed QWERTY.
Please note that per my experience I strongly disagree with the statement in the mail box letter that refers to the "struggle with the problems of conversion from QWERTY to Dvorak." I got the impression that they implied it was obviously a struggle to convert between the two. I haven't found that to be my experience. The fear was far worse that the fact for such a switch.
How about starting to include more strictly one-handed keyboarding information in future issues of Striking Home. If you stop and think about this for a minute, it would certainly be a good way to set Dvorak keyboarding off from the plain old ordinary QWERTY.
Richard A. Meyer
Baldwin, WI

Richard, Including more information about the Dvorak one hand layouts in Striking Home is an excellent idea. Starting with this issue, I hope to do just that. I strongly encourage people who have had direct experience with the Dvorak one hand layouts to write to me and share what they have learned.

I am a thirty year old teacher at a local high school here in Porterville, California, having recently finished graduate studies in linguistics. I was born without a left arm.
If it hadn't been for a colleague who is also missing a left arm, I would never have heard about the Dvorak keyboard for the one hand. I am now learning for the first time how to type by touch, grateful for your Macintosh system keyboard utility that I downloaded via America Online.
I am enjoying my new typing format very much.
Kevin Lombardi
via the Internet

I work for a charity based organization called The Computability Centre. The Computability Centre is a national charity dedicated to improving the lives of disabled people through the use of computers and associated technology.
We see a lot of people with Upper-limb disorder, RSI and single hand use only. We have Dvorak single hand sets and layouts but are unable to find a single hand Dvorak typing tutor. I wonder if you could help as you seem to know quite a bit about what's happening in the bright world of Dvorak.
Andy Clarke
The Computability Centre
Warwick England

I am trying to setup Windows 95 for my wife. She needs a right handed Dvorak layout. MS app. Note GA0650 does not work as is. Any help?
Thomas DiGiacomo
via the Internet

I teach at a local school. I would like to get a left-handed Dvorak keyboard for one of my students. For future reference, I would also like to know where I could get a right-handed keyboard.
James G. Craig, Jr.
Lynchburg, VA

For everyone's benefit, we have listed several common software and hardware solutions for one-handed typists below.

Common Solutions for Dvorak Single Hand Typing
The following are some common solutions for using the Dvorak single hand layouts.

Software

Macintosh: DI Dvorak layouts 1.0.1.
Windows 3x, Windows for Workgroups 3x, Windows NT, DOS 5x and DOS 6x: The MS DOS Supplemental disk, also known as GA0650.
OS/2 2x and 3x: DVORKB.
These files are all free and available online. GA0650 is also available from the Microsoft Sales Information Center. Phone: 1 (800) 426-9400. The files are also available on disk from Dvorak International for $3 per file, shipping and handling.
Windows 95 does not currently support the Dvorak single hand layouts. For those who use Windows 95, the only solution is to install and use Windows 3.1 with the single hand driver from GA0650, or get a hardwired keyboard (see Hardware in the next section).

Hardware

PC keyboards: Synctronics, 980 Buenos Ave., Suite C2, San Diego CA 92110.
Phone: 1 (800) 444-5397 or (619) 275-3525. FAX: 1 (619) 275-3520.
Macintosh keyboards: Keytime, 4516 NE 54th, Seattle WA 98105-2933.
Phone: 1 (206) 522-8973. FAX: 1 (206) 524-2238.

Typing Tutors

Teachers' Institute For Special Education, 2947 Bayside Court, Wantagh NY 11793. Phone: (516) 781-2020, FAX: (516) 781-4070. The Teachers' Institute For Special Education also has typing tutorials for individuals with limited use of one or more fingers on either hand. Call for details.
Keytime, 4516 NE 54th, Seattle WA 98105-2933. Phone: 1 (206) 522-8973. FAX: 1(206)524-2238. Keytime has extensive experience in training single hand typists, as well as training individuals with limited use of one or more fingers on either hand.

Call for details.