Totally disabling Sticky Keys?

hazmat

Rusher of Din
Sometimes, I guess from having hit Shift a bunch of times, Sticky Keys gets enabled and things get weird. Anyone know if there's a way to totally disable it, even if you hit Shift five times?

Thanks.
 
Does unchecking "Allow Universal Access Shortcuts" work?

I'm in Panther right now and there's a separate checkbox for the Shift x 5 shortcut. As seen here:


Panther%20Universal%20Access.jpg
 
I don't know a lot about how Sticky Keys works, but I do see an on/off button that seems to work. Under OS X, open System Preferences and choose Universal Access. You'll see an option to turn off Sticky Keys there. HTH
-todd-
 
Thanks for the replies, but that's not my problem. If you hit Shift five times it will turn it on. I want it so nothing can enable it.
 
Turn off 'Allow Universal Access Shortcuts' in that Universal Access pane! I tried this several times. With Allow Shortcuts enabled, 5 Shift key-presses toggles Sticky Keys (on or off), but Shortcuts disabled, no toggling happens, regardless of number of Shift key presses.
 
Originally posted by DeltaMac
Turn off 'Allow Universal Access Shortcuts' in that Universal Access pane! I tried this several times. With Allow Shortcuts enabled, 5 Shift key-presses toggles Sticky Keys (on or off), but Shortcuts disabled, no toggling happens, regardless of number of Shift key presses.

Ah, but here's the problem. I like being able to use the keyboard for stuff around the OS, like dialog boxes.
 
Hazmut, I'm about 99% sure they purposely designed sticky keys to default like this primarily so that people who are disabled would never run into a computer where they could not activate Sticky Keys easily (meaning not having to go into system prefs). Same thing for Windows too. I think I heard this at a CHI conference last year from the man who originally designed sticky keys and the other accessibility apps on both Macs and Windows (Linux and Solaris too now).

Unless you turn off the UA shortcut option, you can always just press shift five more times to turn it off - right? Takes about 1.5 seconds. Still, and no offense meant, is it really that big a deal when it adds benefits for the people who really need it? I mean, they have to put up with OUR lousy and inaccessible designs every single day. A big part of what makes people "disabled" is poor designs that just aren't thought out well.

This can't be happening too often can it? I mean they picked 5 shifts for a reason - it is a VERY unlikely sequence of keystrokes. What the heck are you doing? :) Is your shift key set to the high intensity particle neutron plasma canon fire button in some game? :) Come on, you can tell us! :)

You may want to turn on the beep option in system prefs for Sticky Keys so you will instantly know when this happens and can counter with 5 more shifts to turn it off.

Another somewhat related point. The same accessibility expert I referred to above had a demo of all kinds of designs that make life very difficult for people who are disabled. For example, try to open most laptops with just one hand. Most have two latches requiring the use of both hands. Why? Who the hell knows why - it makes no sense and is not neccessary. Meanwhile, Powerbooks and iBooks have a single button to open the lid. I tell you, it is the little things like this - hardware AND software - that really add up in making our beloved Macs so much fun to use. Also, the Mac was the first computer to use a nifty little algorithm for selecting sub menu items - it actually knows that people use a curving motion and not a set of straight linear motions to choose a sub menu item. This is why web pages with sub menu type widgets are so hard to use - browsers + html just can't do the same thing. Of course Windows has the same feature and has for some time, but it is another interesting design point. There are many more that Windows has failed to outright copy because they have yet to really grasp the little brilliant ideas behind so many Mac UI features.
 
So unchecking the "Press the Shift Key five Times to turn Sticky Keys on or off" box doesn't do anything? It sounds like this should exactly control the behavior you're looking for.... Or does it not exist in Jag?

If it only exists in Jag, it looks like they're adding it to Panther, probably exactly because people complained about it, like you (I've never noticed in OS X, but I know these shortcuts drive me crazy in Windows... But I CAN turn them off)
 
I played Bugdom 2, I believe it was, just after getting my iMac, and since I had UA enabled, I kept running into the problem of pushing option or something too many times, and something something... anyway, the details aren't important, the point is, there are times when it is a hassle for sticky keys to come on, and it's not always convenient to turn it off. Mostly this is in a game.
 
karavite: I totally understand what you're saying, and for the most part agree. But, apparently at least for me hitting shift five times in a row happens more often than you'd think. It comes out when I have to enter the password to unlock the machine. Sometimes I put in my password over and over but it won't work. It wasn't for a long time that I finally figured out that it was putting in the password as if shift were held down.
 
How about trying a different keyboard (thinking that shift key is not contacting properly) Or, how about adjusting the keyboard repeat settings (so you can continue using keyboard shorts, but 5 quick shifts won't be accepted without doing it slower, for example) I don't know if that will provide a solution, but worth a try. Looks like Panther WILL help you out on this one. :)
 
Yes, hopefully Panther will have options to enable specific features of UA, not just all of them or a number of them at a time.
 
Originally posted by hazmat
Ah, but here's the problem. I like being able to use the keyboard for stuff around the OS, like dialog boxes.

Wait, hang on. You mean Full Keyboard Access in the Keyboard Preferences? That's fully independent from Allow Universal Access Shortcuts in the Universal Access Preferences.
 
Originally posted by davidbrit2
Wait, hang on. You mean Full Keyboard Access in the Keyboard Preferences? That's fully independent from Allow Universal Access Shortcuts in the Universal Access Preferences.

Exactly! Zooming is also independent. All turning off the shortcuts does is disables the key commands to toggle those behaviors (ie- press Shift 5 times to turn on or off).
 
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