SwitchXS 2.2 review
DownloadSwitchXS provides virtually complete access to Mac OS X and all standard Mac applications for people who can only use one or more switches.
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SwitchXS provides virtually complete access to Mac OS X and all standard Mac applications for people who can only use one or more switches. It offers full mouse and keyboard emulation by means of a so-called scanning mode. With each click on the switch the user selects an action, such as "move the cursor up" or "type B", from a "scanning" menu.
SwitchXS is typically used by people who are, for example, quadriplegic due to an accident, or suffering from neuromotor diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) with very limited limb movement.
SwitchXS provides a number of predefined scanning panels that the user can choose to move the cursor, click, and type into all standard Mac applications.
It also allows the user to set scanning speed and cycling, mouse speed
SwitchXS features SmartTransparency?, which makes the scanning panel partially or fully transparent when no scan is taking place to enjoy optimum use of screen real-estate.
SwitchXS works with any HID compliant USB gamepad, joystick and keyboard, and starting with Mac OS X 10.3 also with any HID compliant USB mouse or trackball. SwitchXS also works with USB switch interfaces emulating any of the above devices.
Here are some key features of "SwitchXS":
Full mouse and keyboard emulation.
Works seamlessly with all standard Mac OS X and Classic applications and even with multiple monitor setups.
Supports multiple switches with user configurable scanning methods, including inverse and step scanning.
Provides auto-stepping and auto-selecting single switch scanning methods.
Provides automatic menu scanning.
Includes SmartTransparency™ technology, which makes the scan window become transparent when not used and makes it automatically reappear when the switch is pressed.
Handles command-key combinations, dead-keys, and modifier key - click combinations.
Provides audio-cueing and speech-cueing.
Works with US and international keyboard layouts.
Offers multiple interactively resizable scan panels.
Offers customizable scan speed and cycling, menu scan speed, mouse speed, and reduced mouse speed to tune to each users preference.
Works with a wide range of input devices.
Includes LayoutKitchen®, which allows users to design their own custom scan panels with many advanced features, including colored buttons and text as well as images.
SwitchXS also gives access to word prediction when combined with KeyStrokes 3.5.1 and later. This can dramatically speed up typing while reducing efforts.
Limitations:
15 days trial.
What's New:
SwitchXS now speaks Japanese when the user has the Japanese DTalker application installed on their machine. This way, SwitchXS can provide voice cueing during scanning in Japanese. What is more, when combined with the PCS for LayoutKitchen communication symbol collection SwitchXS can now be turned into a complete switch accessible communication solution for Japanese Mac users who cannot speak. For English, French, German, Spanish and other languages SwitchXS can be combined with our Proloquo software for the same purposes.
To save efforts, SwitchXS now remembers which panel was last used in each application and can (optionally) automatically load that panel each time a particular application is used.
For beginning switch users, a "simplified scanning" feature was added that instantly scans any panel linearly instead of applying traditional row-column scanning. This is great for beginning switch users and at the same time saves parents and educators time, because they do not have to make dedicated linear scan panels, but can turn on linear scanning for all scan panels.
The color of the rotating cursor beam can now be set by the user.
Includes LayoutKitchen 1.0.4.
An expanded user manual.
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