Title: Typing faster with assistive technology

	Title: Typing faster with assistive technology
	Author: Solène
	Date: 16 October 2021
	Tags: accessibility a11y
	Description: Presentation of ibus-typing-booster, a program to
	suggestion completion while writing

	# Introduction

	This article is being written only using my left hand with the help of
	ibus-typing-booster program.

	ibus-typing-booster project

	The purpose of this tool is to assist the user by proposing words while
	typing, a bit like smartphones do. It can be trained with a
	dictionary, a text file but also learn from user inputs over time.

	A package for OpenBSD is on the tracks.

	# Installation

	This program requires ibus to work, on Gnome it is already enabled but
	in other environments some configuration are required. Because this
	may be subject to change over time and duplicating information is bad,
	I'll give the links for configuring ibus-typing-booster.

	How to enable ibus-typing-booster

	# How to use

	Once you have setup ibus and ibus-typing-booster you should be able to
	switch from normal input to assisted input using "super"+space.

	When you type with ibus-typing-booster enabled, with default settings,
	the input should be underlined to show a suggestion can be triggered
	using TAB key. Then, from a popup window you can pick a word by using
	TAB to cycle between the suggestions and pressing space to validate, or
	use the F key matching your choice number (F1 for first, F2 for second
	etc...) and that's all.

	# Configuration

	There are many ways to configure it, suggestions can be done inline
	while typing which I think is more helpful when you type slowly and you
	want a quick boost when the suggestion is correct. The suggestions
	popup can be vertical or horizontal, I personally prefer horizontal
	which is not the default. Colors and key bindings can changed.

	# Performance

	While I type very fast when I have both my hands, using one hand
	requires me to look the keyboard and make a lot of moves with my hand.
	This work fine and I can type reasonably fast but this is extremely
	exhausting and painful for my hand. With ibus-typing-booster I can
	type full sentences with less efforts but a bit slower. However this
	is a lot more comfortable than typing everything using my hand.

	# Conclusion

	This is an assistive technology easy to setup and that can be a life
	changer for disabled users who can make use of it.

	This is not the first time I'm temporarily disabled in regards to using
	a keyboard, I previously tried a mirrored keyboard layout reverting
	keys when pressing caps lock, and also Dasher which allow to make words
	from simple movements such as moving mouse cursor. I find this ibus
	plugin to be easier to integrate for the brain because I just type with
	my keyboard in the programs, with Dasher I need to cut and paste
	content, and with mirrored layout I need to focus on the layout change.

	I am very happy of it.