Multidisciplinary experience feedback on the use of the handimathkey keyboard in a middle school

Abstract

There is a poorly addressed input area in the accessibility field that deals with the input of scientific elements including mathematical formulas. Few studies have addressed this issue although Word and Open Office editors offer input interfaces consisting of button bars associated with mathematical symbols and an “input sheet”. The analysis of input activity with these tools with disabled children has revealed that the use of these bars is complex and tiring. HandyMathKey is virtual keyboard co-designed by specialized teacher and human-interaction researchers to address the difficulties of numerical mathematical input tools. The purpose of this paper is to describe the observation method implemented in a 4th grade class at the Centre Jean Lagarde in Toulouse and to report few results on usability of HMK.