A new problem has come up that really throws a spanner in the works. I suspect I have been aware of it but I have successfully pushed it to the back of my mind. But recently I had to write several important emails and they took many hours to complete. Because of the importance of the emails, I was already in an anxious state and it was already late at night when my Parkinson’s symptoms are at their worst – this new problem has all but destroyed me.
I have been doing 95% of my work on my trusty note 9 smartphone. I have been planning my online training on the assumption that they will be accessed via smartphone. I have been lobbying very hard to promote several Parkinson’s-related projects. Now I have lost all confidence that I will be able to complete them. Has the time come to hang up the gloves?
Let’s describe the problem in more detail. I sent this Whatsapp message to my son earlier this week. He did not get it in one piece like this but rather in several fragments – I put this together for him afterwards:
” I had to have an u/s scan. Getting there and back on my own was quite an adventure, even funny, but it might explain my problem at this stage. While I was still typing this post to you, the post was sent off – because of my beautiful Michael J Fox moves I accidentally touch, but I might explain my problem at this stage.
While I was still typing the post was sent off – because of my beautiful Michael J Fox moves, I accidentally touch keys and you get typos. If you see the typos, you can fix them.
However, many programs, including Whatsapp, place the Send button close to the keyboard, which is normally the right ergonomic choice, but in Parkinson’s it gives rise to the sending of many post or email fragments ,and people find it difficult to put the information together. And even if they know of my problem, it is too much hassle and after having received two fragments or so, they simply ignore me, as did my son.
If text, email or post is important, I will usually send people a stitched together version that I prepare off-line in Word. I usually start long documents in Word anyway, it is usually text messages and blog posts that become long unexpectedly.
Using my smartphone plays a key role in a pwp’s life and would become more important as our planning gets implemented. I have been envisaging an increased role for smartphone-based technology in providing care and and ensuring good quality of people who are living with the complex disease of Parkinson’s. These projects have taken a lot of lobbying to get them even considered, after all what does a pwp know about Parkinson’s. I have no recourses or money so the lobbying has to take place online so that they get to see the argument being presented before they see the person presenting it – funny, strange, isn’t it?
How Bad Is It?
Up to a point one can at least fix the typos, and if one could get the program to ask “Are you sure?” when you press the Send button, then it would still be doable. Sometimes the typos are funny, but they can be rude or politically insensitive. In formal situations it does not do your case much good.
A bad experience
As I found out recently when I was trying to explain as elegantly as I could to a person how upset I was that my email had not been forwarded to a specialist and I explained the importance of the project on many levels to society and to the movement disorder specialist in particular.
At that point the email was sent off accidentally ending in what looked like an expletive. I did not even try to salvage the situation. The ship for that project had sailed by then.
It was doubly ironic, as I had invited the specialist to participate in the project because of her research credentials and the prestige her institution could give the project (that would serve me right for using that as the criterium but I was desperate and I did not have access to many specialists that I could ask). It was also ironic because she could not possibly be expected to give her email address to ordinary people (i.e. pwp) because she was so busy. I remember when email became a thing I did the training of the important specialists who were still using pagers. I taught them how to use MS Office to create research papers more easily and how to collaborate with other authors using email. While respect her research experience, I find her clinical and professional behavior appalling and certainly in part responsible for the excessive dyskinesia that is at the heart of the typing problem.
So, back to the typing problem. With the help of the software developer and AI one could possibly make it less sensitive to typos. But when your Parkinson’s progresses so far, that when trying to fix typos, so you can send the document, you end up creating more typos than you fix, it never gets sent.
Solutions?
We are looking for a solution that can help with existing technology, and also what would be some ideal solution for the future.
MS Word
I have been using MS Word in my training courses as I thought it was the most used word processor in the business world. Word does have a dictation engine built in but I find it a bit clunky. Have you tried it?
Another reason I chose Word was that it was pre-installed on the phone. Of course, Google has a lot of pre-installed software too, including Google docs, I did a search and found that 65% Google Workspace compared to Microsoft Office at 29%.
Why is this interesting? It means I should seriously consider whether I should not consider using Google Workspace in my training courses?
What triggered this new line of thinking was a YouTube video by DottoTech saying that Google Docs has voice typing built-in!
My next project
So, that is my next project: to investigate the possible use of Google Workspace (I must really used to using this new name) in my training courses.
Because right now, having intelligent dictation software and that also allows editing by voice commands would be helpful. It should be part of the system key board so it will work with any program.
I took an advanced set of smartphone app development courses, called a “nano degree”, from Udacity.com (they are the official training institute for Google). I found the Google engineers who taught the courses very helpful and personable, which will count in my decision making process.
I believe Udacity has trademarked nano degree, I must check, but it exactly what I have in mind for HMDlearn. It is not an accredited qualification and it is too expensive.
I don’t have much news otherwise. I did mention going to RCH on my own which ended up becoming an adventure with several interesting aspects.
I am busy with several similar Parkinson’s related projects that are very exciting but have no one here to discuss them with.
Being busy with intellectual things helps one to forget you have down to earth physical needs too. We all do. So I listen to the stories of the other inmates where I can lend a “listening ear” where I can.
I had to have an u/s scan. Getting there and back on my own was quite an adventure, even funny , but I might explain my problem at this stage. While I was still typing the post was sent off – because of my beautiful Michael J Fox moves I accidentally touch, but I might explain my problem at this stage.
While I was still typing the post was sent off – because of my beautiful Michael J Fox moves I accidentally touch keys and you get typos, if you see them you can fix them. However, many programs, including Whatsapp, place the Send button close to the keyboard which is normally the right ergonomic choice, but in Parkinson’s it gives rise to the sending of many post or email fragments and people find it difficult to put the information together, even if they know of my problem, and simply ignore me. If it is important, I will usually send them a stitched together version that I prepare off-line in Word. I usually start long documents in Word anyway, it is usually text messages and blog posts that become long unexpectedly.
Using my smartphone plays a key role in a pwp’s life and would become more important as our planning gets implemented.
Up to a point one can at least fix the typos and if one could get the program to ask “Are you sure?” when you press the Send button, then it would still be doable. But when your Parkinson’s progresses so far that when trying to fix typos so you can send the document, you end up creating more typos than you fix, it never gets sent.
We are looking a solution that can help with existing technology, and also what would be some ideal solution for the future.
I have been using MS Word in my training courses as I thought it was the most used word processor in the business world. Word does have a dictation engine built in but I find it a bit clunky. Have you tried it?
Another reason I chose Word was that it was pre-installed on the phone. Of course, Google has a lot of pre-installed software too, including Google docs, I did a search and found that 65% Google Workspace compared to Microsoft Office at 29%.
Why is this interesting? It means I should seriously consider whether I should not consider using Google Workspace in my training courses?
What triggered this new line of thinking was a YouTube video by DottoTech saying that Google Docs has voice typing built-in!
My next project
So, that is my next project : to investigate the possible use of Google Workspace (I must really used to using this new name) in my training courses.
Because right now, having intelligent dictation software and that also allows editing by voice commands would be helpful. It should be part of the system key board so it will work with any program.
I took an advanced set of smartphone app development courses, called a “nano degree”, from Udacity.com (they are the official training institute for Google). I found the Google engineers who taught the courses very helpful and personable which will count in my decision making process.
I believe Udacity has trademarked nano degree, I must check, but it exactly what I have in mind for HMDlearn.
I don’t have much news otherwise. I did mention going to RCH on my own which ended up becoming an adventure with several interesting aspects.
I am busy with several similar Parkinson’s related projects that are very exciting but have no one here to discuss them with.
Being busy with intellectual things helps one to forget you have down to earth physical needs too. We all do. So I listen to the stories of the other inmates where I can lend a “listening ear”
🙂
Student 1 “My father is a glass half-full kind of guy.”
Student 2 ‘Oh, is he very optimistic?”
Student 1 “No, he has Parkinson’s!”
😉🙂🙁😈🤨😌🥹🤫👌
Student 1 “My father is a glass half-full kind of guy.”
Student 2 “Oh, is he very optimistic?”
Student 1 “No, he has Parkinson’s!”
😉🙂🙁😈🤨😌🥹🤫👌