Follow this link for a more recent tutorial applying to Windows XP.
SlowKeys is useful for pupils who find it very difficult to isolate one key from amongst others. It is a free accessibility option within Windows and is therefore worth a go, although it's important to point out that keyguards and specialist keyboards may be able to a better job.SlowKeys slows down your keyboard's response rate and has a drastic affect on typing speed. By having a fairly fast response rate (0.3 seconds is the fastest available) it improves access to users who tend to frequently tap other nearby keys inadvertently.
By invoking a longer response rate (up to 20 seconds!) it allows a user to drag their hands blithely across the keyboard without actually producing any text or doing strange things in Windows. To produce a keystroke, the pupil would need to hold a desired key down for the amount of time set. This would not usually be anywhere near as long as 20 seconds as this would be incredibly restrictive.
SlowKeys is a great way to deal with young kids of all abilities who like running their hands across the computer keyboard rather than produce written work.
Here's how to give SlowKeys a go:
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Open up your computer's Control Panel by going to Start Menu and selecting Settings. Inside here you'll find your Control Panel. This tutorial is designed for Windows 98 but also applies to Windows XP with a few obvious changes. All tutorials will be updated in March 2005. Maybe. Yeah go on - probably. |
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Inside the Control Panel locate the Accessibility Options icon. Double-click this to launch it or if you struggle with double-clicking you can single-click it and press the Enter key on your keyboard to open it. |
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Make sure the Keyboard part of the program is showing. If it is not then click on the 'Keyboard' tab at the top-left of the Window. For some really strange reason SlowKeys is really hidden away but luckily for you there are folk like me around to find these things for you! In order for SlowKeys to work you need to enable FilterKeys. Find the FilterKeys box and tick it. Now click on the FilterKeys Settings button. |
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In order for SlowKeys to work you need to enable 'Ignore quick keystrokes and slow down the repeat rate'. This means that, as part of FilterKeys, the repeat rate for the keyboard will also be affected. The repeat rate refers to the time between sequential keypresses of the same letter such as the o's and l's in 'balloon' Notice that under the Notification heading there's an option to turn on or off 'beep when keys pressed or accepted'. Unless your pupil would really benefit from this I'd recommend that you turn this off. Once you've enabled this you can click on the appropriate Settings button. |
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Inside the advanced settings for FilterKeys dialog we've finally found SlowKeys. I don't really know why it's buried so deeply - it vaguely makes sense I suppose. It's still in the same place in Windows XP. Anyway, there it is at the bottom of the Window. SlowKeys lets you adjust the amount of time a key needs to be held before Windows will accept it as a keypress, therefore ignoring brief presses on the other keys. If set to a high enough setting it will allow your pupils to merrily drag their hands around the keyboard before stopping for a second or so - assuming that they can - on the key that they're after. The quickest setting is 0.3 seconds - which is still a pretty long time to hold a key down for. Keyguards can allow faster typing than this and could be just the ticket! To be speed up slow typists who use SlowKeys or a Keyguard you could try a prediction program like Co:Writer or Penfriend. |
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