---- General Help -----------------------------
General Help
AccessX is an extension to the X Window System for making keyboard and mouse
actions more accessible to users with disabilities.
The AccessX utility was co-developed by Digital Equipment Corporation,
Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc., and by The Trace Research Center
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (funding provided by the
National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, US
Dept. of Education, Grants H133E80021 & H133E30012). Additional
support was received from the X Consortium and IBM. The X11R6
version of AccessX was incorporated into the XKB keyboard extension by
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
AccessX has the following windows: the main window, the Settings window,
Help windows, and two Status windows. Information concerning features on
the Status and Settings windows appears in the Help windows on individual
features.
The main window has the following features:
o Three pulldown menus, one for controlling the program and accessing
Files, one for bringing up Status windows, and one for
getting Help windows. Press F10 and either 'f', 's', or 'h' to
open these menus. Use arrow keys and Return to choose an item.
o A checkbox for turning AccessX on and off ('Enable AccessX').
Note that exiting the accessx utility does not disable it.
If you want to disable the utility, you must uncheck the 'Enable
AccessX' checkbox.
o A checkbox for specifying that you get a beep when a feature is turned
on or off.
o Checkboxes for turning individual features on and off.
o A checkbox and slider for setting a timeout. Set the timeout if you
want to have AccessX disable itself after an interval with no
keyboard or mouse activity. This is useful if the system is shared
with people without disabilities.
o A button for bringing up the Settings window.
The Settings window has checkboxes and sliders for affecting the behavior
of various AccessX features. These are discussed in the Help for each
feature. Additionally, the Settings window has the following four buttons:
o The Apply button saves your changes and leaves the window up.
o The Cancel button cancels all changes and dismisses the window.
o The Okay button saves your changes and dismisses the window.
o The Reset button resets the settings to their last saved values.
---- Sticky Keys Help -----------------------------
StickyKeys
Intended Users: People who can press only one key at a time
(e.g., those who type with one finger or with a
mouth stick).
What StickyKeys Does: With StickyKeys on, you can keep a modifier key
(Control, Alt, Shift, or Meta) active while you
press one or more other keys. This allows you
to type, for example, Control-D as two separate
keystrokes.
How It Works: With StickyKeys on, pressing a modifier key once
will make that key active until another key is
pressed. For example, if you press Shift, 'h',
and 'i', you get 'Hi'.
Pressing a modifier twice makes it active until
you press that same modifier again. For
example, if you press Shift, Shift, 'h', and
'i', you get 'HI'. Press Shift again to
deactivate it.
Turning It On/Off: Sticky Keys may be turned on and off in the
following ways:
o Check the StickyKeys checkbox in
the main window.
*The following are valid only if you've started
the X server with the -accessx option.*
o Press Shift five times in
succession.
o Press a modifier and any other key
simultaneously.
Note: You can also deactivate StickyKeys by pressing
two modifiers at once, if you've checked the
appropriate checkbox in the Settings window.
You can have your machine beep when a modifier
key is activated or deactivated. Check the
appropriate box in the Settings window.
There is a Status window for displaying which
modifier keys, if any, are active.
---- Mouse Keys Help -----------------------------
MouseKeys
Intended Users: People who need a keyboard based alternative to
the mouse.
What MouseKeys Does: Lets you use the numeric keypad to emulate mouse
activities (moving the pointer on the screen and
clicking mouse buttons).
How It Works: The keys on the numeric pad emulate the mouse as
follows:
o The 1 - 4 and 6 - 9 keys move the
pointer around the screen.
o 5 is a mouse click; 0 is a mouse
button press (and hold); + (plus)
is a double-click; Del is a mouse
button release.
o / (slash) activates the SELECT
mouse button; * (multiply)
activates ADJUST; - (minus)
activates MENU.
o Enter toggles between the x10 and
normal cursor speed.
The user may have to hold down the 'Alt Graph' key
while pressing the keypad keys.
Adjusting It: The Settings window allows you to adjust:
o The maximum speed of the pointer.
o The time it takes the pointer to reach
maximum speed.
o The motion delay time before the pointer
starts moving. Note: If the 'Motion delay'
scale is greyed out it is because the X
server only supports the old AccessX
extension which does not provide support for
the 'Motion delay' feature.
Turning It On/Off: You can turn MouseKeys on and off in the
following ways:
o Check the MouseKeys checkbox on
the main window.
o Press Alt-Shift-NumLock. (Valid
only if you have started
the X server with the -accessx
option.)
Note: You can bring up a MouseKeys Status window from
the Main window to display which mouse buttons,
if any, are pressed.
---- Toggle Keys Help -----------------------------
ToggleKeys
Intended Users: People with limited or no vision, who are unable
to use the LED lights on a keyboard to tell if
the Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock keys
are active.
What ToggleKeys Does: Beeps when one of these keys is activated or
deactivated.
Turning It On/Off: Check the ToggleKeys checkbox in the main
window.
---- Repeat Keys Help -----------------------------
RepeatKeys
Intended Users: People who have difficulty removing their finger
(or mouth stick) from a key quickly enough to
prevent it from repeating.
What RepeatKeys Does: With RepeatKeys on, a key must be held down for
a certain length of time before it will start to
repeat.
Adjusting It: You can adjust the behavior of RepeatKeys in two
ways, using the Settings window:
o You can set how long a key must be
held down initially before it
begins to repeat.
o You can set how long a key must be
held to continue repetition (i.e.,
how many times a key will repeat
per second).
Turning It On/Off: You can turn RepeatKeys on and off in the
following ways:
o Check the RepeatKeys checkbox in
the main window.
o Hold down the Shift key for 8
seconds. (Valid only if you have
started the X server with the
-accessx option.)
Note: Holding the Shift key down for 8 seconds also
turns on SlowKeys.
---- Slow Keys Help -----------------------------
SlowKeys
Intended Users: People who have trouble typing one key without
accidentally typing others. (For example,
someone who hits the 'r' key while typing 't'.)
What SlowKeys Does: With SlowKeys on, only keys that are pressed for
a minimum period of time will be accepted as
input.
Adjusting It: You can set (in the Settings window) the
notification style for SlowKeys. You can have
your machine beep when a) a key is initially
pressed, b) the key-press is accepted, c) both,
or d) neither.
You set the amount of time you want to pass
before keyboard input is accepted. For example,
if you set this to one second, then only a key
that is held down for one second or more will be
accepted.
Set this value in the Settings window.
Turning It On/Off: There are two ways to turn SlowKeys on and off:
o Check the SlowKeys checkbox in the
main window.
o Hold the Shift key down for 8
seconds. (Valid only if you've
started the X server with the
-accessx option.)
Note: SlowKeys and BounceKeys cannot be active at
the same time.
Holding down the Shift key for 8 seconds also
turns on RepeatKeys.
---- Bounce Keys Help -----------------------------
BounceKeys
Intended Users: People whose fingers `bounce` while attempting
to press a key.
What BounceKeys Does: With BounceKeys on, the system ignores rapid,
repeated pressings of a single key.
How It Works: You set the amount of time that must pass before
a second pressing of a key is accepted as input.
Any accidental `bouncing` on the key is ignored
during this interval.
Set this interval in the Settings window.
Turning It On/Off: Check the BounceKeys checkbox in the main window.
Note: BounceKeys and Slowkeys cannot be active at
the same time.