Application of cursor movement control software to people with physical disabilities: Two case studies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cursor movement control (CMC) software and develop useful techniques for pointing device operation by people with physical disabilities. To accomplish this, experiments were conducted with the cooperation of users with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The results showed that, for a user who faced difficulty in operating a pointing device in specific directions, the CMC (separate control mode) application was effective because improvements in the usability could be achieved while making use of the user's ability. For a user whose operation was found to alter the direction and amount of cursor movement, the results suggested that an appropriate control mode would be to adjust the cursor movement by the same amount in all directions, which could reduce the physical burden on the user. In future work, we will make the CMC software available and will consider additional case studies.