My Favorite |
Free software programs are sometimes problematic. Programs listed as free might be a "dumbed down" version of a program that cost $$$. Shareware is only free for a certain time period. Programs hawked as free may have other items downloaded with it; and sometimes these extras may be malware and cause real problems.
When people ask me about free software I always tell them about TANSTAAFL. This acronym was used in my favorite sixties era sci-fi novel, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein. TANSTAAFL ("There ain't no such thing as a free lunch") was the motto of a colony of miners on the moon.
This warning statement certainly holds true for "free downloads" from the Internet. That being said, I am a huge fan of free software and in particular, I search for free adaptive software. For more examples of free adaptive software, see my Free Software page in the Archived Resources section.
The adaptive software programs listed below are all programs that could make you say that TANSTAAFL is not 100% true. The programs listed below are all truly free. There is no cost associated with them, there are no tricks or hidden fees, they are not time limited, and best of all they are very effective.
No program is perfect, but I can recommend these without hesitation.
They are listed in alphabetical order with no ranking.
AutoHotkey |
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This is an open-source utility for Windows. You can use AutoHotkey to do a number of things that simplify tasks but I find the following to the ones that are the most useful to persons who are adapting their computer input. Abbreviation Expansion: By writing a script in Notepad, you can create an abbreviation that expand and thus save you keystrokes. This function is quite helpful in situations like passwords on the Internet, typing your long email address into a form, or reproducing any kind of “boilerplate” text that you use frequently. Key remapping: Using AutoHotkey you can “remap” any key on the keyboard. For example, the Windows Logo key to the right of the space bar could be changed so that it is now the Escape key. For example, this would be a great help for a user who is not able to get to the regular ESC key. Hotkeys: This utility can be used to create hotkeys to perform any number of tasks, for example open a specific web site. Hotkeys can be made to be almost any combination of a key or button. The hotkey could also run programs, produce pages of text, etc. It takes some tech savy to use this program. There are tutorials availabe on this website about the download and install of the program as well as how to script AutoHotkey.
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Big Calculator |
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This is an open source utility that has large print for easy viewing. You can control the size of the print by changing the width of the calculator window. You can either click on the buttons with the mouse or use the numeric keypad to perform calculations. For people that have vision issues and need to perform simple math, this program is extremely effective. |
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ClickAid |
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A free stand-alone on-screen click assist program designed for anyone with a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to use a physical computer mouse. This program is not a mouse emulator, such as Point-N-Click below. Rather than have a menu with alternatives to clicking a mouse, this program takes your standard left mouse click and converts that to a right click, double left click, drag and drop, etc. This is a simpler program in some ways than Point-N-Click. It works very well in a situation where the PC user is able to provide a physical click input, such as with a Tash USB Button Switch. This enables the user to take the one click that they can perform and convert it to a variety of mouse input options. This is an effective program from Polital Enterprises. Three of their programs made this Favorites list. See CNT Designer and Point-N-Click below.
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Click-N-Type |
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Click-N-Type is an excellent, freeware, on-screen virtual keyboard designed for anyone with a disability that prevents him or her from typing on a physical computer keyboard. From the good people at Lakefolks.org. There is an immense amount of information on their website. A word prediction module is available. I have used a number of different on-screen keyboards with my adaptive computing clients. I prefer Click-N-Type over all of them, even the quite expensive, "full service" versions. The fact that it is free is clearly a bonus, but the flexibility that this program offers trumps all the others. Click-N-Type offers a number of great features. My favorite is the easy-access macros. This saves users a lot of effort when having to type repetitive information. But perhaps the coolest feature is the ability to create special custom keyboards. This is done with the CNT Designer software from Polital ( see the program below). If I were asked to identify the free adaptive software program that has been the most beneficial to me and to my clients, Click-N-Type would be the runaway choice. |
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CNTDesigner |
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The Polital website provides three of the programs in this list. See ClickAid above and Point-N-Click below.
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Dasher |
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Dasher is an open source, information-efficient, text-entry interface, driven by natural continuous pointing gestures. This program is unlike other letter or word prediction programs. Odd at first, but very intuitive. It is impossible to describe and difficult to imagine seeing the static images. There are videos on the website, but the only to really understand is to try it out. In a nutshell, as you move the cursor to the right of the center of the display, the letter "come to you" and their appearance is driven by word predictive concepts. I am fascinated by the program and demonstrate it regulary. I have to admit that I have found few opportunities to seriously use it with clients in my Adaptive Computing Lab, but I am always looking for ways to make better use of this cool program. |
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E-Triloquist |
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E-Triloquist is an excellent free TTS (Text-To-Speech) program. This progam is an augmentative communication aid software package formerly known as "SpeakEasy", developed as a family project to help the father who had devloped amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and lost his ability to speak. Though develped with ALS users in mind, anyone who needs some aug com assistance will benefit from this program. It comes with a number of pre-recorded phrases, sorted into folders by logical phrase types. All phrases may be edited or deleted. New phrases or folder types are easy to create. There is an excellent 20 page PDF format manual available by clicking on the Help button in the Menu Bar.
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FreeMind |
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FreeMind is an open sourc, free "concept mapping" software which allows users to organize their ideas, concepts and projects in a visually friendly manner. A USB portable version is also available. A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added. This is a great way to put ideas onto paper. It can be very helpful to persons who struggle to put their thoughts into typical, traditional sentences and paragraphs.
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Notepad |
Included in all Windows operating systems. |
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Clearly this program is not truly free. It is an applet that exists in all Windows operating system. However, since it occurs in all versions, no one has to buy it as an add on. So I use it as regularly as if it were a freeware program. Notepad is extremely simplistic. I feel that it is important for three reasons. 1. It is ubiquitous. It exists on every PC using Windows. 2. The lack of formatting options makes it easier for new users and for persons with great inputting disabilities. In fact, the lack of formatting is a great way to strip problematic formatting. For example, if you copy text off the Internet and can not handle the formatting, just dump it into Notepad and then copy it back into a more sophisticated word processor. Voilà...links, tables, image holders, etc. are all gone! 3. Notepad has a great feature that makes it a useful word processor for tasks like a journal or a log. For a person who does not want to have to laboriously enter time and date info, you can have Notepad do it for you. All you have to do is open Notepad and type on the first line ... period + LOG in caps... .LOG and hit enter...now every time the file is opened Notepad will put a time and date stamp at the bottom of the file. This works great for something like a medication log. 11:45 AM 5/12/2009 For these reasons, I like Notepad and it made this list of effective free Adaptive Software options. |
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Point-N-Click |
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A free stand-alone on-screen virtual mouse designed for anyone with a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to click a physical computer mouse. As long as they can move a mouse, trackball or other pointing device, they can send mouse clicks to virtually any Windows application or DOS application that can run within a window and even many that are full screen. There a number of mouse emulator software packages that work fine, but none of them offer the sheer number of options and the flexibility to totally control the interface. This is a great program. Another Polital Enterprise product that succeeds! See Click Aid and CNT Designer above. |
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Sue Center |
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Though the program was developed for persons using special mouse input, I have used this program with computer users who use a regular mouse for cursor movement but struggle with the actual clicking for input. The scanning features and the word prediction have made this a very effective program for that purpose. The Sue Center interface is somewhat unique in that the text you create exists only inside Sue Center. You are not entering text into a traditional word processing program like Word, Wordpad or Notepad. This means that you do not have the ability to edit existing files, alter formatting, or put text into applications at will. For example, you can not create text in Sue Center and then copy it into your email browser. However, Sue Center has its own email component. Useful features include Word Prediction, Word Completition, Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Abbreviation Expansion. The program also offers some environmental control features using X-10 technology. |
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Virtual |
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A free, open source, screen magnification utility, for Windows and Linux. For Windows, download the Vmg3.3_install.exe file. When you run the program there is a mangifier icon in the System Tray. When you click on the icon, instead of having a mouse cursor, you have a magnifier bar. The magnifier may also be called with a keyboard shortcut. After using the magnifier, a left click brings back the mouse cursor. Clearly this program would not compete with full screen magnification software. But it is simple to learn and provides visually impaired users a quick and useful magnifier. This program will run well from a USB drive and thus offers easy mobility. Available settings enable you to change the size of the magnifier, the level of magnification, invert colors, and other aspects. |
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X-Mouse Button Control |
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This free, open source utility enables you to "remap" a button on your mouse. For example, a third button that typically is a double left click could become a "drag and drop". These button assignments can be application specific. For example, you could remap the third button to become a Back command while in an Internet Browser. The program also allows a button click to become a keyboard combination.
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