My plan is twofold.

I shall arrive at the conference with a small tube of superglue. I will use the superglue surreptitiously to HACK THE BRAILLE by dotting its paint with small bumps of fast-hardening superglue. Don’t worry. I’ll guard it till it hardens so that no one will be glued to the restroom door.

As an added bonus, I’ll photograph the flat braille, and start a flat braille Tumblr. That should be good for some excellent laughs!

Talk about missing the point!

I tried a microphone on the desk but I couldn’t get the microphone close enough to my mouth so the voice recognition was useful. Which is why I was still using a headset. I looked around the Internet for a boom mic and couldn’t find anything for less than 500 bucks. Which just seemed outrageous to me. So I tried to find a workaround and found something that works for me. I found one of those magnifying lamps like this: http://www.overstock.com/Crafts-Sewing/Slimline-Magnifying-Lamp/3546202/product.html I’m sure that you can use a plain old desk lamp. The important part is the armature with the bend in it. I found a cheap one for about 15 bucks. Bought a regular desk microphone and brought them home. I had the magnifying glass and a lamp removed from the armature, wires and all. Leaving me with a cheap boom. I took the base off the desk microphone so I had a long thin microphone. I mounted the microphone on the end where the magnifying glass used to be. In my case there was enough tension in the bracket that had held the magnifying glass that I was able to just push the microphone into place and I had a boom mic for the cost of about 30 bucks. I haven’t had to, but it might be useful for others to add a little weight to the microphone end of the boom. I’d probably just tape some fishing weights or something similar to the armature to make it a little bit easier to articulate.

I use a mouthstick with my computer to supplement the voice recognition. This is probably too simple but, I thought I’d mention it. A mouthstick can be a pretty pricey item and I just can’t make myself spend that kind of money for a fancy metal or plastic mouthstick. So I go to Home Depot or some similar store and buy a couple of wooden dowels. I cut them to a useful length. Tape the end that will be in my mouth (I use electrical tape, but I’m sure other tapes will do). Then I tape one of those rubber finger cotts that people use when they need to thumb through lots of paper. The rubber end gives some friction and makes typing easier.

My last little gadget is what I call a “quiver” for my straw’s. I buy these extra long straws from a medical supply company that are about a foot long. They’re useful for drinking when you can’t lift a cup. The problem is I didn’t want these straws flopping around loose in my backpack picking up lint or whatever else found its way into my backpack. So I went to a home supply place and bought a length of PVC pipe that the straws would fit in. I bought two end caps to screw on both ends and now I have myself a container for two or three of my straws.

That’s about it for my first contribution to Hack Ability. I hope you find some of them useful.

I like to keep my knees warm, but don’t want to wear long underwear all year round. Regular legwarmers tend to feel too tight for me and also, a bit itchy. So I cut the toes off some very fuzzy chenille socks and use them over my calves or knees, and under my jeans. A more organized person might stitch around the cut edge, but actually, it’s fine without hemming.

In dollar stores sometimes, you can find these or fuzzy armwarmers and cut off the toe or fingertips. The very loose weave stretches further than regular socks or leg-warmers. They’re about 5 dollars. Without something covering my right lower leg, just the air touching it feels like sandpaper. Sandpaper on fire. An extra layer to stop the cruel knife-like breeze that other people think of as “air” is extremely helpful.

Happy warm knees, or warm calves, to you!

Put your keys on a lanyard or a necklace!

Then they’re always handy.

If you are a wheelchair user, you might be keeping your house and car keys in a pocket. But you have to shift around to get your hand into your front or back pocket, which stresses your back and your hand. On crutches or a cane, getting out keys might mean leaning up against something or even sitting down to handle devices, anything you’re carrying, plus the keys. So, put your keys on a necklace, a string, a lanyard, or one of those glasses-holding chains.

Bus or train passes or ID can hang off a lanyard too in a plastic badge holder.

You can also use a retractable keychain, which clips onto a belt loop, your pants, a backpack strap, or whatever. Personally, I like keys around my neck, keeping it to just two or three keys. And I think a transit pass would be better kept on a “Key-Back” clipped to the inside of a backpack, so it’s handy and doesn’t get lost.

Making lovely custom “key necklaces” could be a great project to make and sell on Etsy, out of necklace materials, or from velvet cord or embroidered ribbon. They would need to be sturdy and yet as light as possible to avoid irritating a person’s neck or shoulder. Here is a craft business opportunity which is easily extendable to many uses!

The MacOSX Trackpad control panel doesn’t allow turning off the multitouch and zoom functions!

Kustaa “Kusti” Nyholm lets us know that The New MacBook Pro Multitouch Trackpad Sucks — and best of all, exactly how to fix the problems.

First get this free beta software MultiClutch from Will Henderson’s blog. Assign zoom and pinch to a relatively harmless keystroke like Command-B, and half the problem is fixed!

Then follow Kusti’s instructions to make a trackpad button cover.

I took a DVD case, regular scissors, a pen and a piece of paper, and scotch tape. In less than 5 minutes, I had a new trackpad “mouse button cover”. It’s fantastic!

The mouse button cover doesn’t have to fit perfectly; mine doesn’t, and it still works. The laptop lid closes normally. I recommend this hack for anyone who has a new MacBook Pro !

This hack was suggested by some guys from the organization Knowbility who were at my Open Source Disability Tech talk at SXSWi 2009. It sounded like they use this hack fairly often to help people with dexterity issues. It struck me as a beautiful and simple hack, very cheap and easy to execute!

Materials: A chess or other knobby game piece with a flat undersurface; superglue.

One of my first hacks as a person with a disability was making duct tape crutch pockets back in about 1997. I had gone from cane to wheelchair to cane again, and then needed crutches over the winter. As I walked from room to room in my house, I wanted a big pocket to carry a book or my paper notebook. These pockets were made from thin cardboard video tape boxes, covered in tape. They’re anchored firmly to the cross bar and the sides of the crutches, so they don’t flop around like some cloth and velcro pockets I’ve seen.

Then a few years ago I posted a photo of the crutch pockets on a blog. It was picked up by Life Hacks. I really enjoyed the way that people who saw these pockets, or heard the idea, had an “aha!” moment. It’s a simple idea, and yet if you haven’t thought of it yet, it’s just not obvious.

What hacks have you made from duct tape?

And do you have crutch pockets you like better? Homemade, or store bought? Let us know in comments.