Microsoft Designs Mouse for Special Needs Children

Microsoft has a consistent tradition when it comes down to developing assistive technology for people with special needs. But although the Redmond company's efforts are vastly focused on making software products easier to use, there are exceptions involving hardware. Or in this case peripherals. Mike LaManna, a designer for the Platform Components, Creation and Collaboration team within Microsoft, has come up with a simple concept that made it into a working prototype of a mouse tailored to special needs children. LaManna revealed that he had expected such a solution to already be widely available, but instead found himself in the position to invent it himself.

“I really thought it was going to be a quick Internet search and that was it. I would find something and purchase it,” LaManna explained, adding that it was not the case. While there were indeed mouse designs aimed at people with disabilities, none of them were targeted at young computer users. Special needs children often find it extremely difficult to work with a computer through traditional input models such as a mouse and the keyboard.

Dexterity problems means that normal interaction is plagued with issues, including fingers slipping from mouse buttons. LaManna started working on concepts and building prototypes, and along the way he got help from Annuska Perkins, a senior accessibility strategist in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing unit and former Microsoft employee Hugh McLoone, a user experience expert.

Together they came up with the final prototype, a small mouse for notebooks with a ring attached to the left click button. “It’s a little more arts and craft than it is high-tech design,” LaManna stated. “Sometimes I get a little red in the face, working somewhere where designs go out buttoned up and pixel perfect, and I am walking around with a glue gun and a bag of party rings.”