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 seem to enjoy running their hands carelessly across the computer keyboard rather than produce written work.
Here's how to give SlowKeys a go:
Open up the Windows Control Panel by going to Start and selecting Control Panel from the menu.
If there is no Control Panel in your Start Menu then your school's technician or network administrator has stopped you from being able to access it!
Windows Key, Arrow Keys (to select Control Panel), Enter
Double-click on the 'Accessiblity Options' icon to launch the applet.
A (to select Accessibility Options), Enter
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.
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.
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.
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