Half-QWERTY: A One-handed Keyboard Facilitating Skill Transfer From QWERTY

Half-QWERTY is a new one-handed typing technique, designed to facilitate the transfer of two-handed typing skill to the one-handed condition. It is performed on a standard keyboard, or a special half keyboard (with full-sized keys). In an experiment using touch typists, hunt-and-peck typing speeds were surpassed after 3-4 hours of practice. Subjects reached 50 % of their two-handed typing speed after about 8 hours. After 10 hours, all subjects typed between 41 % and 73 % of their two-handed speed, ranging from 23.8 to 42.8 wpm. These results are important in providing access to disabled users, and for the design of compact computers. They also bring into question p;evious re;earch cl~ming finger actions if one ‘hand map to the other via spatial congruence rather than mirror image. K E Y WO R D S: Input devices, input tasks, human performance, one-handed keyboard, QWERTY, portabl