Living the life and being a blind assistive technology user means  interacting with my pc from a `keyboard. I ditched the mouse when I began navigating a computer with JAWS software. We refer to the various text-to-speech software programs for blind and low vision as screen readers, not to be confused with a live person reading aloud.  These programs accomplish much more  like assisting me in writing, formatting and interacting with the internet when posting blog content, holding interviews and attending virtual meetings, or checking my Facebook account.

 

The mouse, and to an extent, a touch screen for a laptop or desktop computer isn’t useful because I can’t see . For example, the mouse for my system is tucked on the little shelf beside my laptop.  Unless Jerry needs to assist me with something on my pc, it stays there gathering proverbial dust. One day I was cleaning the real dust and cat hair from the desk and the mouse tipped over and slid down the back of the desk, wedging itself under the floor mat behind the desk. I didn’t notice. The following week I noticed odd things happening on my pc like the windows jumping around and arbitrarily closing.  Then our pet dog, May  started sleeping under the desk where it’s cooler and I finally realized her napping was somehow responsible for my pc acting weird.   I confirmed the mouse wasn’t in the usual place next to my laptop. I slipped off my shoe and located the  mouse, easing it out with a toe.

 

Now I have the mouse back and in a safe place. May can go back to laying on the remote on the bed and changing the channels instead of  laying on the missing mouse and messing up my documents.