ABSTRACT
A research programme was set up to develop user-friendly computer equipment for those people with physical disabilities. Three new designs of computer keyboard for people with difficulties in hand and finger movement were developed and prototypes created. The research task was to decide which of these prototypes is the most successful. Four potential users of the new equipment agreed to take part in a test of the new keyboards. Each participant was asked to use the keyboard to input a piece of text and the number of errors was recorded. Three equally difficult pieces of text were used so that a participant did not improve performance by practice on the same piece of text. The choice of text and the order in which the keyboards were tested by each participant was controlled for, to account for possible confounding variables. The results of the experiment are shown below.
