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ATandMe

Author: Karl O'Keeffe

screenshot of supermario with custom optikey controls at the bottom of the screen. lef6t, right, jump, down/pipe, run/fire (hold)
October 23, 2026 Karl O'Keeffe

Just the buttons you need: build a simpler way to control apps

Many programs come with dozens of buttons, menus and options,

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June 14, 2024 Karl O'Keeffe

Learning with Assistive Technology in Primary Education – EPV SUMMER 2024

Enable Ireland are delighted to share with you details of

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A screenshot of enable ireland website, what is AT page with the ReadEasy menu open and the Make Readable tool selected.
June 12, 2024 Karl O'Keeffe

Language as a barrier – Review of ReadEasy.AI

Those of us concerned with digital accessibility are often more

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point and speak being used on an iPhone. Microwave controls pictured with finger hovering over the power level button
June 26, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Point & Speak – Apple Accessibility 2023 (Part 3)

The final accessibility feature announcement from Apple in their May

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illustration of woman communicating on a mobile device - generated by Bing Image Creator
June 19, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Live Speech and Personal Voice – Apple Accessibility 2023 Part 2

…it can be used right from lock screen. This feature alone will make it extremely useful and allow people participate in spontaneous communication without having to unlock the device and find the app.

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5 iPhone 14 Pro Max showing the 5 Assistive Access apps: Calls Messages with emoji keyboard, Camera, Photos and Music with a Dance party playlist
June 2, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Apple Accessibility Updates 2023 (Part 1) Assistive Access

A couple of weeks ago (16th May) Apple issued a

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frowning face with open mouth emoji and text
May 26, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Are emoji bad for accessibility?

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD 2023) was widely acknowledged on

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composite illustration generated by AI using the prompt: online learning, creative expression, education, technology
May 17, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Free and low-cost online Assistive Technology (AT) courses

Celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day Enable Ireland National Assistive Technology

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April 18, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Clicker 8 Webinar Series

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illustration of boy and girl in classroom. Learning with Assistive Technology is written on the board
April 18, 2023 Karl O'Keeffe

Learning with Assistive Technology – Primary Education

Learning with Assistive Technology – Primary Education Assistive Technology (AT)

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In this video I'll briefly show how to easily build an Optikey Dynamic Keyboard using our build document and an AI assistant that can be used as an alternative interfaces for games or apps.

Descriptive Transcript
[Video starts showing the optikey on screen keyboard typing "optikey" on a blank document. It then switches to the Special Effect webpage about EyeMine]
Narrator: OptiKey is a free on screen keyboard that
people control with their eyes, head, mouse, a joystick or a touchscreen.

It can do much more than type though. The UK gaming charity Special Effect
built EyeMine from it so that people could play Minecraft with their eyes.

[The Spotify control keyboards are shown on screen here. 3 keyboards. One to launch Spotify, YouTube or VLC. One to control the apps with buttons like Next previous, play pause and a favorates keyboard.]

OptiKey also has dynamic keyboards. They are small text files that describe
keyboards, what each key says and what it does, such as pressing a key or opening a programme.

It's a similar idea to the grids in software like the Grid 3 or Communicator.

In my experience, dynamic keyboards are underused because there's no editor with buttons and menus.

You have to write the files yourself. That's where an AI assistant comes in.

[Claude AI chat interface, prompt added and edited. Build document uploaded. Screenshot of game controls uploaded]

We wrote a build document and instructions with working examples. I'll upload it, then add a short message,
the app I want to control, the functions I want and how the person will use it, and a screenshot of the game controls in
this case.

Although I could just write them down. Or sometimes you could even just ask the AI to find out the keyboard shortcuts for you.

A few moments later I have a first draft, a layout, the keyboard files, and the setup steps.

I saved the files in a folder. There's an extra step here that you won't need to do because the new prompt asks
the AI to give you the file to directly download.

If you're an optic key user, put the file in your dynamic keyboards folder or if you just want to use this
optickey for this purpose, as we show here in the console, you can set Optikey to look for this keyboard file on opening so we can
restart optiKey.

And here's our new dynamic keyboard.

[Keyboard docked at the bottom of the screen controling the supermario game]

It's a bit hit and miss for these browser based games, but for well designed and implemented games and apps this should work pretty solidly.
Optikey Dynamic keyboards: Accessible alternative access for apps and games
Musician Cillian McSweeney gives us a brief history of his life as a musician who uses Assistive Technology. While he tells his story we see a montage of clips of him playing music live and on TV. We see him using a sound beam, switches and eye gaze. and playing with various bands and musicians in different venues. The second half is a screen recording where he shows a free program that he uses called Eye Play Chords. At the end of the video there's a QR code linking to My Breath My Music where the software can be downloaded.
Eye Play Chords
Smart Support AT for Alzheimer's Management
How to set up an Action Block on Android to make WhatsApp calls
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