Accessibility for authors - protecting our health
I'm writing this after a long day working in storyline for the majority of the time. Like most people, I do have my frustrations with storyline, but lately my main problems have been related to the physical effects of using the software itself.
I have a nerve condition that is similar in its symptomology to repetitive strain injury, and is exacerbated by similar kinds of repetitive motions. I also have mild arthritis in my fingers. At the moment, after a large session of simple objects style changes, in which I had to do the same action over a hundred times with around six clicks per time, my entire lower right arm is tingling and I have small shooting pains in my fingers and wrist. This could have been made much easier with the ability to use the copy style tool between states of different objects, which doesn't appear to work. Or a restructure of the toolbars to make buttons like line width more accessible in the interface.
My point is, storyline is one of the most mouse intensive pieces of software I use, with the smallest number of keyboard shortcuts available. It would be much appreciated if some thought could be put into making the interface more accessible for authors, as well as thinking about the output for learners. I'm currently typing this using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, because my wrist has frankly given up for the day.
At 42, I have a reasonable amount of my working life left. I'm already at the point where I'm having to reduce the amount of time I spend using storyline – I don't want to reach a point where I have to stop using entirely.
Short of any future improvements to SL, I'd be interested to know of any tips anyone has to reduce mouse use in Storyline, or mouse alternatives people have used. I found a footrudder the other day while looking around online, but it's no longer made. I'm considering a programmable foot pedal at the moment, but that's more for shortcuts/maybe scrolling.
Thanks
Nic