4 ms·

I've found this to be true for my wife, who has fairly advanced Huntington's Disease (please do read about it -- to say that we'd love a cure is a massive under

I've found this to be true for my wife, who has fairly advanced Huntington's Disease (please do read about it -- to say that we'd love a cure is a massive understatement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntingtons_disease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntingtons_disease), as well. Although it seemed odd to me at first, she performs far better with the iPad than the iMac that I bought her years ago. Typing, clearly a chore for her with a physical keyboard, is somehow simpler on the iPad in landscape. A clear benefit of the iPad: it is relatively simple to constrain what can and can't be done. The base set of apps are simplistic. The only downside: I can't hide apps that she doesn't want to use or that I would rather insulate her from. I'm looking at you, Settings.app. But between E-mail, bookmarks as desktop icons, Friendly, Proloquo2go, Safari, and the iPod app, my wife's quality of life suddenly improved dramatically.

sleight42 16y ago
If you didn't gather from the article, there is an entire subculture of people like my wife and I that loves the iPad. I am slowly finding other members of this little community. So here is a free product idea that would scratch our itch: build an iPad case that is friendly to autistic/motor-skills-impaired individuals. The OtterBox Defender is a step in the right direction but it lacks: * a transparent screen protection layer * optional carry/grab handles * a detachable carry strap (I may hack one out of duct tape -- I did this for my wife's Kindle case ages ago. Oh, and did I mention how the adjustable font size is totally awesome for my wife?) * more padding so that my wife could possibly drop the iPad from ~4' and not have to be terrified that she just destroyed $500 of iPad?
glhaynes 16y ago
iOS 4.2 will bring folders to iPad, which might help a bit. At least all the "dangerous" stuff can be put in one hopefully-not-very-interesting-looking place. Though that might cause problems too, of course! It seems like the complaint about not being able to hide things is a consistent one whenever the topic of disabled people's usage of Apple's touch devices comes up; I hope they hear it and do something about it.
- mattparcher 16y ago
  This reminds me of the usefulness of having multiple user accounts on the iPhone and iPad. Given the social, shareable nature of these devices (especially the iPad), a bit of added complexity would go a long way to customizing the experience (and protecting sensitive data).

sleight42 16y ago

If you didn't gather from the article, there is an entire subculture of people like my wife and I that loves the iPad. I am slowly finding other members of this little community. So here is a free product idea that would scratch our itch: build an iPad case that is friendly to autistic/motor-skills-impaired individuals. The OtterBox Defender is a step in the right direction but it lacks: * a transparent screen protection layer * optional carry/grab handles * a detachable carry strap (I may hack one out of duct tape -- I did this for my wife's Kindle case ages ago. Oh, and did I mention how the adjustable font size is totally awesome for my wife?) * more padding so that my wife could possibly drop the iPad from ~4' and not have to be terrified that she just destroyed $500 of iPad?

glhaynes 16y ago

iOS 4.2 will bring folders to iPad, which might help a bit. At least all the "dangerous" stuff can be put in one hopefully-not-very-interesting-looking place. Though that might cause problems too, of course! It seems like the complaint about not being able to hide things is a consistent one whenever the topic of disabled people's usage of Apple's touch devices comes up; I hope they hear it and do something about it.

mattparcher 16y ago
This reminds me of the usefulness of having multiple user accounts on the iPhone and iPad. Given the social, shareable nature of these devices (especially the iPad), a bit of added complexity would go a long way to customizing the experience (and protecting sensitive data).