Dynamic Modelling of Keyboard Skills: Supporting Users with Motor Disabilities

This paper describes the effective application of user modelling to the assessment of the physical ease with which a user can operate a standard QWERTY keyboard. The application is unusual in the sense that physical rather than cognitive skills are being modelled. The model examines four important skills which a user may have difficulty with, and produces an assessment of the ideal keyboard configuration for that user. This assessment can then be used to adapt the keyboard. For users with motor disabilities, such adaption can minimise or even eliminate the problems they experience. The model dynamically adapts to the current user and operates on free English text input. It has been evaluated using typing data from twenty keyboard users with disabilities and six without. The configuration recommendations made are very well matched to the users’ problem areas.