The student who uses braille can use a yping program in a taped format. However, this can be time consuming and it may be more useful to dictate letters, words or phrases for the student to type. For older students quotations or passages from plays or poetry can be typed from memory or dictated. The following method is only one of many which are available to teach keyboarding skills to students. Most word processing programs will give an explanation on the use of the function keys.
Shortcuts allow the student to use less keystrokes to perform actions on the keyboard.
Thus, shortcuts allow the student to get into menus and operate programs easily. The shift, the tab, the control, option and the command keys, combined with the letters on the keyboard help to eliminate individual strokes. A list of shortcuts often accompany applications. The numbers replace the need to use the arrow keys, the return key, and the function keys. The shift, option and command keys along with the numbers are used instead.