There are two subjects I could talk about until the cows come home, one is angling, the other is computers, I just love them. I first got a computer back in 1992 when all the operating systems were DOS. Things have really come along since those days. Computers now have 200GB hard drives, 512MB of RAM and much much more. My original 386 had a 300MB hard drive and 6KB of RAM. Can you imagine trying to use something like that these days?

My main interest is building websites/forums. I get a lot of satisfaction out of building something that I know lots of people will look at and hopefully get information from. This isn't the only web site that I have put together. I have also built and maintain several others.

A small selection of the websites I maintain 

French self-catering holidays | Arty Nails | Brixham Ace |  Torbay Community Forum   | oscarfishlover.com

So you can see I keep myself busy using my computer every day. I have often thought about trying to make some money from computers but I think that would spoil it for me. I can choose when I sit in front of my computer and when I don't. I really don't want to be in a position where I have to use a computer whether I like it or not. If I want to leave the computer alone for a week I can. No, it's purely a hobby and I will keep it this way

The biggest advantage with computers is no matter what your disability, you can use a computer independently. Okay, you may need someone to turn it on and set a few things up to begin with, but with the technology these days, anything is possible and even very high level tetraplegics are able to perform virtually every task that is necessary on a computer without even touching the keyboard. If you can speak, you can operate a computer. Even if you can't speak, there is hope on the horizon. Someone has even had some kind of brain surgery which enables them to communicate with their computer by thought. it is quite breathtaking nowadays just what software can do

Kensington Expert Mouse

Luckily I am able to move my arms . I have no movement in my fingers at all, this doesn't stop me from using the keyboard and most of what the computer has on it. I haven't had to buy any special adaptions to use the computer. The only two things I have purchased is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 and a couple of Kensington expert trackballs. The Kensington Expert Pro Mouse is excellent, I can't praise the manufacturers enough for coming up with such a superb piece of kit. What you have is a large ball in the body of the mouse which sits on your work surface. You can turn the ball in any direction with any part of your hand (no finger movement needed at all) There are four large buttons on the trackball. Each one can be programmed to do certain tasks. The really good thing about this trackball is that you can programme each button to do whatever click you like. In other words, If you're comfortable with a double-click on the lefthand button, then you can programme it to do exactly that. There are also six smaller buttons that can launch programs, websites with just one click.

If you are a tetraplegic then you will know how frustrating and difficult it is to drag things on your computer. Well, the Kensington expert mouse has a function where you can programme one or more buttons to do this function. It means that you can drag things on your computer by just turning the ball and not having to concentrate on holding a button down as well. Pictured right is a slightly different make of Kensington trackball mouse. It doesn't have the six programmable buttons that will launch various websites, but I have found that I didn't use this function anyway. What it does have that the others don't, is a back ring around the actual ball. This is for scrolling up and down the pages of documents or websites. If you have no finger movement you should find this an extremely useful function as I have done.

I have seen a few so-called disabled trackballs on the market that have been designed for tetraplegic use. To be quite honest, the Kensington expert mouse pro will do exactly the same job, if not better sense anything is in the same unit rather than split in two, and it also comes with a cheaper price tag as well.

  Demonstration of the Kensington Expert Mouse

 Below is a couple of outlets in the UK where you can purchase the Kensington Pro Mouse and similar products

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Kensington_Expert_Mouse_Pro_Trackball_64213/version.asp

http://www.keytools.co.uk/mice/kensington_expert_optical.asp

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9

Another programme which I couldn't do without is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 . Version 9 is my latest purchase and boy does it perform well. If you think 7.3 is good, you'll be absolutely amazed by version 9. Dragon Naturally is a speech recognition program that is used by all sorts of people, not just disabled folk. You can literally control your computer by voice, I rarely touch my keyboard any more.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking will work in virtually any application. I use it on MSN messenger and Skype (when sending messages). It will also work on most, if not all search engines. It will also work in chat rooms, not that I use them very often. It will work on forums and message boards. Occasionally, you may find that it doesn't work 100%. For instance, it may not let you put punctuation in. I haven't found this in many instances, only the very occasional forum or message board. Anyway, it doesn't really matter if you lose the punctuation on forums and message boards, people can always understand what you're saying.

It does take a bit of getting used to because you have to remember so many commands. Once you have mastered how to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you will never go back to using the keyboard again to write letters or e-mails, I promise you that.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 requires that you use some kind of input audio device. I have used all sorts of microphones from headsets to desktop microphones. Most worked extremely well but you are probably best off using a headset microphone. For Dragon to work to its full potential, you need to make sure that the microphone is kept in the same position from your mouth at all times. If you fail to do this, you will find dragon will make mistakes. There are so many headset on the market you could spend hours choosing one. I have tried various headsets and found most of them to work extremely well. As for the prices of these headsets, you could pay up to £100 for some of them. From my experience, this isn't really necessary as the cheaper headsets work just as well. If you purchase a new version of Dragon, you will get a headset included. I am actually using a plantronic DSP 100. This is a superb headset, they work like a dream on Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

I also have a Plantronics CS60 USB wireless headset for use on Skype. The microphone actually works superbly on Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The price tag is rather hefty so I would probably think twice about purchasing one just for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Having said this, if you are a seasoned skype user, then I would definitely recommend this headset as you can walk around the house and even go outside without it, you are not limited to sitting in front of your computer. So, if you are fed up with wires everywhere when using speech recognition programs, get one of these headsets, you won't be disappointed. If you are not bothered about wires, save yourself a lot of cash and stick to the traditional headsets

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is as I've already mentioned, my preferred programme for speech recognition. I have found it to the quite remarkable when it comes to accuracy. Having said this, it will only work properly if you train the programme to recognise your voice pattern. Once you have done this, you will find it one of the best programmes on the markets in my opinion. For very high-level tetraplegics there are quite a few other products on the market that will enable computer use. This is a bit out of my league so I am adding a link at the bottom of this page that links to a website of a tetraplegic who is very experienced in all the equipment needed for high-level tetraplegics to use the computer independently.

There are products on the market that can be strapped to a lifeless hand enabling the use of the keyboard a lot easier. I always knew these attachments as "plonkers" they are quite straightforward, they consist of a shaft of around 18 inches or less and about the thickness of a pencil. Some people have rubbers on the end, the type that you can put on the end of a pencil. This enables you to press each key on the keyboard without slipping off. You can obtain this specialised equipment from disability shops, or alternatively, ask your occupational therapist for advice. You will probably find that you will get it free if you need it. Check this website out, they have loads of stuff that will help but the physically disabled carryout daily tasks.

As for my keyboard, it is just a standard keyboard that you can buy anywhere. I find that Dragon NaturallySpeaking can do so much for me, I don't really need a special keyboard. I have gone for a keyboard that has got buttons that can launch outlook express and Internet Explorer which is quit handy. My keyboard is also got buttons for cut, copy and paste which is extremely handy.

 Demonstration of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9

 Important notice

If you haven't done so already, go to help within Dragon ( right click on the microphone in the bottom right  corner of your screen) then select check for updates and follow the on-screen instructions.  You should install Service Pack 1 for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9. This will fix various problems such as Dragon freezing which is very annoying  

Computers supplied by charities

Computers can be an absolute godsend to anyone who spends long periods of time at home. If you are unable to afford to buy a computer, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. There is a website called "Computers for the Disabled" they are able to supply good-quality reconditioned PCs for the Disabled, the housebound Disabled centres & home users. Use the link below to go to their website.

Laptops for the disabled

I have got a Compaq laptop but I don't really use it that much. It is really for emergencies such as short stays in hospital, or if I have to take it to the radio club. The laptop sits quite neatly on my knee and I can use it quite easily whether it be on MSN or writing e-mails. I tend to use my PC for my web design etc.

If you haven't got any finger movement then you may find using a laptop rather troublesome. Nearly all laptops come with a touchpad now. I have found them reasonably easy to use but not nearly as easy as a trackball. The trouble comes when you want to drag things. Most able-bodied people would probably use two hands to drag things across the screen. Since us quadriplegics haven't got any finger movement at all, doing this task is very difficult indeed. On most laptops, there is a facility where you can program the touchpad so you can actually drag things, however, if you have no finger movement, you may find it rather frustrating at times, especially if you are using it for delicate tasks. On my Compaq laptop, I can program either button to act as a drag system. All I do is hold down the button for a couple of seconds. This ifthen enables me to highlight text and move things around a desktop. However, it is quite fiddly and not particularly easy to do when you have no finger movement. Personally, I wouldn't want to use a laptop all the time, I much prefer a PC equipped with a trackball mouse, that makes my life a lot easier. If I do have to use my laptop for work, I now plug my trackball into it to make things easier. The only problem I have found is that the Compaq laptops won't boot properly with devices such as a USB trackball plugged in. If you intend on purchasing a laptop, check this out as it can be a real pain if the laptop won't boot up properly, you have then got to ask someone to start unplugging and plugging them back in again which takes away your independence.

Searching the Internet

Have you ever wondered what happens when you type a word into a search engine like google or Yahoo? What happens is, when you press enter, things called meta crawlers or robotic spiders search the web, looking for every word or phrase that you have typed . Let's imagine that you want to rent a house out for a holiday. If you type the words holiday home, you are going to get an awful lot of websites come up because holiday home is probably used on millions of websites around the world. As good as technology is, a search engine doesn't know where you want to go holiday unless you tell it.

Most people know where they want to go on holiday so utilise this knowledge when using the Internet . Let's say you want to go to France on holiday. You could type in something like "homes for rent in France" you are still going to have an awful to choose from. Your best bet is to decide whereabouts in France you want to go and then start your search again.

Okay, you have decided you want to visit South West France. You don't want to stay in the hotel, you want to rent your own property. If you type in something like "gite Southwest France" you will whittle your search down even more. Having said this, Southwest France is still quite big so now you have to redefine your search a bit more. A good idea would be to choose an area in Southwest France that you would like to visit, we will use the north Dordogne as an example. Now try typing in "gite North Dordogne Southwest France" now you should start getting somewhere. It would probably be a good idea to find a fairly detailed map of where you want to go, so you know what place names to type into a search engine.

Using phrases is also a good way of finding what you want. A good example would be if you were disabled and wanted to take up fishing but needed advice. Typing in "fishing from a wheelchair" is sure to give you fairly good results because you have two good keywords in that sentence, wheelchair and fishing. The search engine is going to ignore the words " from" and "a" because those two words don't actually mean anything when it comes to searching for something. We can redefine our search even more if we want. Let us say that you are disabled because of a spinal cord injury. Type "quadriplegic fishing from wheelchair" (including quotation marks) you will now get pages that have the words quadriplegic fishing and wheelchair. The chances are, these are websites that are related to what you are looking for. Adding quotation marks at the beginning and end of phrases will really help to find what you're looking for.

Try this for an experiment. First of all, type life in a wheelchair into google. Now try typing in the same phrase but this time, place a quotation mark at each and now see where my web sites is listed. It won't necessarily improve your rankings that much, but what it will do is discard a lot of websites that you don't want. You will notice what has happened. When you typed in life in a wheelchair without quotation marks, you got around 3 million websites listed. When you added the quotation marks, you ended up with around 14,000 websites, a lot less to sift through at the end of the day. It's worth using this method, it will save your lot less time looking for things on the Internet

Remember, if you use the correct words and phrases when searching on the Internet you'll have great success, use the wrong words and you will get nowhere.