ATU785 – Keyguard AT with Mark Larson

Hi, I’m Mark Larson, the owner and founder of Marblesoft, LLC. We also operate under the name of Keyguard Assistive Technology, making key guards for people with disabilities. And this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 785 of Assistive Technology Update.

It is scheduled to be released on June 12th, 2026. On today’s show, we’re super excited to welcome Mark Larson from Keyguard AT to the show to talk everything about keyguards. We also have a story out of Apple about a challenge resulting in some new accessible apps. We’re joined by Ale Gonzalez from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning. We pay a little more of an ode to 15 years of Assistive Technology Update.

Listeners, if you happen to need a transcript of today’s show, you can go to eastersealstech.com, find this show and transcripts are right there. Our transcripts are generously sponsored by InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC over at relayindiana.com. Also, don’t forget, listeners, we always love to hear from you. If you’ve got a question, a comment, something you want to know more about, someone we should have on the show, a topic you’re interested in, heck, a little bit about anything assistive technology, please do reach out.

You can call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or shoot us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Thanks for taking time out of your day to give us a listen. Now let’s go ahead and get on with the show. Listeners, it’s a very early heads up, but just remember our next INDATA full a day training over wearable assistive technology will be coming up next month, August 26th, 2026.

This full day training will be available both in person here in Indianapolis, Indiana and also streamed online. If you’ve been to one of our trainings before, you know that you can get CEUs for these, whether attending in person or online, but you do have to register. So again, our next full day training over wearable assistive technology will be coming up on August 26th.

Keep an eye on the website for the registration link. If you happen to have questions about assistive technology, we have Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions or ATFAQ. The show is hosted by Brian Norton and features yours truly along with Belva Smith as we all talk about assistive technology with questions that come in from email, phone calls, and other means.

We also don’t always know the answer, so it’s very important that we have listeners that can help us out with some of those questions. Because while we like to think every once in a while that we may know everything, we’re proven wrong almost daily on that one. So if you’re looking for more podcasts to listen to or if you have questions about assistive technology, make sure to check out Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions wherever you get your podcasts.

So listeners, last week I told you it was kind of like the 15-year anniversary of the beginning of Assistive Technology Update. We played the very first episode of this show, which if you’ve been listening to this show since the very beginning, it used to be pretty short. It used to be about two, three, maybe four minutes long, kind of at its longest. In fact, the show did not get in its current form of the question and answer interview style show until episode seven, which came out back in July of 2011.

But I figured since we are celebrating 15 years, we’d go ahead and do a little flashback and listen to episode two of Assistive Technology Update. Now, I promise you this will not be something that’s going to show up every single week, but not many podcasts make it to 15 years, especially coming out every single week for that entire time. So we do want to take a little bit of time to celebrate being able to be coming to you every single week for a full 15 years.

Pretty cool feat. We’re very, very excited about it. But none of this happens without you, listeners. So anyway, go ahead and sit back, relax, and listen to episode two of Assistive Technology Update as it talks about some of the brand new technology coming out in June of 2011.

Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in Indiana, and this is your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. First off, this week Apple announced a number of new products, including an upcoming release of the new iPhone operating system, the new iCloud storage system for music, documents and photos, and the new version of the Macintosh OS X operating system, Lion.

Included in the over 250 new features, Lion has a number of accessibility improvements. These include a number of new international voices for the voiceover screen reader, customizable preferences that will allow voiceover to use different speech settings for different computing tasks, picture in a picture zoom, crisper cursors for new users with low vision, and a new drag and drop feature designed to improve the ability to move items around on the screen.

Watch for other new accessibility tools from Apple in an upcoming episode. Did you ever realize how much music and sound effects add to the movie going experience? Sometimes the subtleties of music and sound effects are lost for moviegoers who rely on captioning. A new service called Enhanced Captioning is attempting to convey this underlying content by using a visualization at the bottom of the screen for deaf and hard of hearing viewers.

On the project’s website, the trailer for the popular movie Inception is enhanced with this new technology that conveys the impact and eeriness that was intended by the filmmakers. Visit our website for a link to check out this exciting new technology for yourself. Lastly, Eye-Com has developed a new eye tracking system for use by individuals with significant mobility impairments.

The EC7T system is a wearable device that looks like a pair of glasses equipped with infrared sensors to detect and track the user’s pupil. Traditionally, many eye tracking systems were mounted on the computer system. This new wearable system reduces the difficulties related to positioning the eye tracking system and allows users to more easily use eye movements to send an email, browse the web, or play computer games.

Want more? Find links to all this great new technology and check out our blog at eastersealstech.com or follow us on Twitter @indataproject. Until next time, this has been your Assistive Technology Update.

And thank you so much, Wade, for taking us on that blast from the past. And thank you, listeners, for all your time. Whether you’re new here or whether you’ve been here for 15 years, thank you so much for listening. Let’s go ahead and get on with the rest of the show. Listeners, our first story today comes to us over from, fittingly, Apple Stories. It’s titled AI meets accessibility in this year’s Swift Student Challenge.

So it says here the annual Swift Student Challenge invites students from across the globe to bring their ideas to life through original app playgrounds built with Apple’s easy to learn Swift coding language. It says this year they had 350 winning submissions representing 37 countries and regions with a just wide range of different technologies. It says that 50 of these distinguished winners have been invited to attend the Worldwide Developers Conference at Apple Park this month.

The story itself actually focuses on four of those winners, and I kind of just wanted to focus on one kind of from this story, just because I think it fits a little bit more of what we talk about on this show. And luckily, it’s the first one it talks about. So I will put a link to this over in the show notes so that you can easily go back and find it, read about all these folks and learn a little bit more about all the really great things that they talk about here.

But the first one here and the one I wanted to highlight is called Making Art More Accessible with Steady Hands. It talks about Gayatri Goundadkar, and I’m very sorry if I mispronounced that name, who’s 20 years old, says that she grew up drawing and painting with her grandmother in Pune, India. So they used to work together and do Warli painting, which is an century’s old art form known for its use of geometric shapes.

As her grandmother aged, her hands started shaking and just wasn’t able to really practice it. So this stayed with her and inspired her to build this app playground called Steady Hands, which uses the Apple Pencil stabilization to help folks with tremors in creating art. So she’s a third year computer science student at Maharashtra Institute of Technology World Peace University, where she’s actually in an app development program.

But it says she was actually inspired by Apple’s own accessibility features such as touch accommodation, started using Swift UI concepts and then using Claude to help unpack the lessons on things such as the pencil kit, how it handles stroke data, and everything else. And basically what it’s able to do is use stroke data, recognize tremors and other things in order to figure out what’s intentional and what is not and then remove that tremor component.

It says that since she’s making this for older adults, wanted to make sure that it was very easy to use, not intimidating and didn’t really feel clinical, just calm and working behind the scenes and maybe something that you don’t even really notice is really and truly running. So very cool. Again, there’s some really great other things that are in here, including something that will help you perfect your presentations with something called Pitch Coach, one called Asuo, which helps you find a safe flood zone evacuation paths, and one called LeViola that helps get music education accessible to all.

So all the stories here are very cool, all very, very awesome ones, but I thought the first one really sort of fit the things that we talk about here. So who knows? Maybe someday we’ll be able to see this out there, something that would make the iPad touch screens and even using an Apple Pencil or stylus or something like that a whole lot easier for folks who have tremors could really be a great accessibility tool.

Don’t worry, I’ll put a story of this over in the show notes so that you can read on and find out more. Listeners, next up on the show, we’re very excited to welcome back Ale Gonzalez from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Notion. Notion is an all in-one productivity app that helps users organize notes, manage task, plan projects, and use AI tools to stay productive and organized. Users can create customizable pages for everything from daily to do list and class notes to work projects and personal goals.

Notion also includes templates, calendars, reminders, collaborative workspaces, and AI features that can help summarize notes, brainstorm ideas, create content, and answer questions. Our favorite features were the built-in AI tools. Notion allows users to organize information in a way that works best for them, whether through checklists, visual boards, calendars, or simple notes.

The AI tools can help reduce stress by helping with writing, organizing thoughts, and simplifying large amounts of information. This can be especially useful for students, professionals, and individuals who benefit from structured organization and task support. Notion is currently available for both Android and iOS devices and is free to download with optional paid features available. For more information on this app and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Today, listeners, we’re lucky enough to be joined by Mark Larson from Marblesoft, LLC to learn about the different solutions that they have available and I, for one, cannot wait to find out more. Mark, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Mark, before we get into talking about Marblesoft, the great technology and everything, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

I met my first partner in a Fortran class, believe it or not, back in college in the ’70s and we developed some programs for his two-year-old daughter, which eventually became Marblesoft. And so we worked as a software developer for many, many years. The iPad was not kind to us and we switched from doing software for disabilities to making keyguards. A keyguard is a device that helps someone access their technology.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I guess since we kind of started talking about keyguards, I guess can you explain to the listeners what all I could use a keyguard for?

So imagine a person with tremors trying to use a keyboard and they keep hitting the wrong key or they hit multiple keys, or perhaps someone with weak hands and they end up dragging their hand, their knuckles or their palm across the keyboard trying to reach one of the higher letters, maybe something in the number row and they keep activating the other keys unintentionally, so a keyguard covers the keyboard with an opening for every key so that the user with one finger can only touch one key at a time.

And Mark, I know that keyboards come in all shapes and sizes. Do you offer different kinds of keyguards for different needs and for different sizes and styles of keyboards?

Yes, exactly. We’ve done dozens of different models of keyboard. If it’s a keyboard that we don’t have, you’ll need to send us a copy so that we can actually measure it and test fit it.

Oh, excellent. Well, good. If it’s one that I like or one that I’m used to using, one that I’ve kind of got there, I just need that extra assistance, I can get it to you and get something custom to be able to help.

Yeah, and it doesn’t even have to be a working keyboard. A lot of times schools want a keyboard for a Chromebook. They got to send us a Chromebook. So even if they have an old broken one that doesn’t work anymore, it doesn’t matter. We just need to measure and test fit the keyboard.

Nice, nice. Very cool. Very cool. I like how that’s able to be just special for each individual or for each, I guess, keyboard that they’re trying to access. You’re not limited to I have to have the Dell whatever in order to make that work.

The first keyguard I ever saw was back in 1984 or so when we were first developing Marblesoft software. And one of our users had a keyguard his father had made by drilling holes in a piece of plywood and screwing it to the front of his Apple II computer. And so who knew that 50 years later I’d be making key guards for a living.

Yeah. And I have seen some of the old wooden ones. And hey, you use what you’ve got and make it work. They do get a little heavy. They can get a little heavy though, I must admit. So I’m not sure how they can do all that. So Mark, I know we can use keyguards on a physical keyboard. What about a keyboard that’s on a screen or something like that? How would that work?

Yes. Actually keyguards for screen devices are the most common keyguard that we make. In fact, keyguards for iPads are the majority of what we do. So you can imagine a blind person trying to use an iPad. They don’t know where to touch. So we make a keyguard with openings where they actually need to touch the screen. That gives us the same kind of protections that a regular keyboard keyguard does. It helps the user to only touch one spot at a time. Plus, it gives them protection against falsely hitting other parts of the screen with other fingers or the palm of their hand.

Very cool. And then what about… I know a lot of folks use tablets for AAC, for augmented alternative communication. Can you make a keyguard for that? Because I know a lot of times there’s different size buttons, they’re kind of all over the screen, and I do know that physical access can be a challenge. Can they be made for those as well?

Yeah, that’s the majority of what we do. So an app like TouchChat or Proloquo2Go where there are a lot of settings in the app that affect the layout of the screen, you give us all those settings. In other words, maybe the number of rows and columns, the font size, the height of the toolbar, et cetera, and then we just make the keyguard to match. When we can’t do it from settings, we do it from a screen capture.

So for instance, with TD Snap, if you’re familiar with the motor plan layouts, they’re always fixed. So you tell us a motor plan, we know exactly how the keyguard should be. If it’s another grid though, it can be changed by the user in an infinite number of ways. So there, what you do is just take a screen capture off the iPad, send it to us and we can match it.

Very, very cool. And Mark, I could ask you, I know sometimes there’s, I don’t know, odd keyboards, I guess. I think of number pads, different things like that. Could a keyguard be used on something like that too?

That’s a great question. Yes, we also do that. In fact, yesterday we just made a keyguard for a little 10 keypad that someone sent us for the first time. Actually, that’s kind of the fun part when we get to do that kind of odd stuff. A couple years ago, we actually made a key guard for the Smith Corona electric typewriter that I used in college. Somebody had a Montgomery Ward’s version.

It was a different color, but it was identical to the one that I had in college. That was a lot of fun. We made one for a choir director who kept hitting the wrong button in church and he’d cut off the organist or the singer, or I don’t know what the problem was, but we just made him a little tiny keyguard with four holes in it so that he could make sure that he touched the right button during the church service.

We have one in the shop right now for a mailroom operator. So it’s a huge keyguard. It’s going to be 30 inches wide by, I don’t know, 15 or 18 inches tall. And it just has the screen for operating this mail sorter and the mailroom operator will be assisted by being able to touch the right part on this joint touchscreen.

That’s so cool. And I see so many applications for that in a workplace because there’s so many. I mean, I think of most time clocks are touchscreen. Most other things like that. I know it can be a major challenge for individual with, as you said, who might be low vision or blind, as well as the folks with physical challenges. So it sounds like pretty much, I don’t want to overgeneralize here, but pretty much if it’s got a keyboard or a touchscreen, there’s a chance that a keyguard could be fit to it for your needs.

Yeah. The number of times that we’ve had to turn away a request is you can count on one hand. It’s just We’ve done it for just about anything you can imagine.

Mark, what kinds of different keyguards are there?

So we haven’t really discussed the materials much, but we make keyguards out of several different materials. Most of them are plastic. We can also do wood on occasions. We made a keyguard for a former surgeon who had tremors. He had difficulty using his laptop. I was at his home. He had this beautiful office full of oak or teak or something bookshelves with all these medical journals and everything.

And that oak keyguard that we made him on his Apple MacBook computer just looked so classy in that room full of wood. But primarily we use plastics. We have good durable plastics that we use by default. Our default material has a great Mylar coating on it that gives it a non-glare finish. So that’s really, really useful and probably 90% of the keyguards are made that way, but we can also make them with polycarbonate.

Polycarbonate is unbreakable and we guarantee them for life. And we’ve actually never had to replace one because it broke. So we have polycarbonate in clear or black, either dull coated or not. If you don’t dull coat it, it’s kind of shiny and reflective. But some people like it without the dull coat because it’s a little more clear. If you need to see through the areas of the keyguard, for instance, maybe you cover something so you don’t want this user to have access to it, but you want it to be visible.

So polycarbonate is a great option either for those people who are tough on things or if you just need something that’s going to last. And these materials are available in different thicknesses. If you use a thicker material, the keyguard is going to stick higher above the screen or above the keyboard, in essence, making the holes deeper. Well, that’s going to require a more deliberate touch on the part of the user.

So with a thick keyguard, they’re going to have to find their way to the opening and actually deliberately push down into the keyguard to touch the surface. With a very thin material, it’s going to require very little of that. You still have all the protection from double hits. But if we use a thin material so that the keys are just barely below the level of the keyboard, people can actually touch type through the keyguard.

Very cool. And Mark, I got to ask, let’s say I don’t know anything about keyguards, but I really think it’s going to be something that can help me, can you and your team work with me to help me decide what might help me the most?

We do that every day. The keyguard seems like such a complicated product because there are so many options. But really when we get down to the individual user, it’s quite simple and we’re glad to help you with that. We take calls like that every day and are happy to talk people through the process.

Excellent. Excellent. Mark, you kind of touched on this a little bit, but tell me a story about just one of the keyguards that really sticks with you, something you got to make that was really able to help someone out, or maybe just one that, again, you just remember or think of or really sticks out in your memory of someone you were able to assist.

Well, we get a lot of calls, comments from people, maybe someone reordering a keyguard, how much this helped some person, some child or whatever, but one that really sticks out to me. The guy called and said, “I left my daughter’s iPad on the roof of the car and I drove away.” He said, “I retraced my steps, couldn’t find it. I need a keyguard. She can’t speak now. She’s lost her mode of communication.” So we remade the keyguard from the original specs and rushed it out to him and we got her back in operation in a day or two. So that was really a rewarding phone call.

Oh, most definitely, most definitely. Yeah, and especially that you’re able to already have the plans, already have all those things and be able to rush that out. That’s really great. Mark, if somebody out there listening really thinks that they’d be able to benefit from a keyguard in order to be able to access their device, their keyboard or whatever, what’s a good way for them to reach out, find out more and get that process started?

You can reach us at keyguardat.com or you can call us at 763-755-1402. The email address we use is sales, S-A-L-E-S, @marblesoft.com, M-A-R-B-L-E-S-O-F-T.com. You can call anytime, and there are several of us who answer that same sales email, so we’ll always get back to you as soon as possible.

Perfect. That is awesome. We’ll make sure to put that down in the show notes so that folks can reach out, can learn more and be able to find different solutions that might be able to help them. I know I’ve seen folks’ whole life just be opened up by getting a keyguard, whereas they’ve used to have so much trouble accessing their device, accessing the keyboard and everything else, because something as small as just a slight tremor to really almost needing to lean on it to be able to get access.

It’s really amazing how they can open those up. So Mark, thank you so much for coming on today, for telling us all about Keyguard AT and all the amazing things that you’re all able to do there.

You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on an Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @indataproject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC.

You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners, or this host.

This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.