It’s easy to compartmentalise the progress of this disease into hands/no hands, speech/no speech etc. In fact the onset is progressive: the part that’s relevant to our conversations here are a slow robbing of finger, hand, then arm function. Whilst this is distressing it does at least allow us to plan, adapt and set up new tools and workflows for the dimmer end of the journey.
I’m at the mid stages, my hands and arms, my fingers still work reasonably well but are slow, clumsy and retain little strength. This has provided the motivation to develop and use automation to save keystrokes and reduce the need for keyboard tasks that are becoming increasingly awkward for me.
Again, MND/ALS doesn’t arrive fully formed with a single thunderclap, most of us have time to adapt. The power within these apps is released by a little personal effort during the early stages. This work pays off in spades later and depending on your inclinations, it can even be fun. Hearing the ‘plop’ as a text expansion takes the strain seldom fails to draw a smile. This is particularly true of the next tool, Keyboard Maestro.
The Flying Soup Dragon 