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Computer users with impaired dexterity often have difficulty accessing small, densely packed user interface elements. Past research in software-based solutions has mainly employed two approaches: modifying the interface and modifying the interaction with the cursor. Each approach, however, has limitations. Modifying the user interface by enlarging interactive elements makes access efficient for simple interfaces but increases the cost of navigation for complex ones by displacing items to screens that require tabs or scrolling to reach. Modifying the interaction with the cursor makes access possible to unmodified interfaces but may perform poorly on densely packed targets or require the user to perform multiple steps. We developed a new approach that combines the strengths of the existing approaches while minimizing their shortcomings, introducing only minimal distortion to the original interface while making access to frequently used parts of the user interface efficient and access to all other parts possible. We instantiated this concept as Adaptive Click-and-Cross, a novel interaction technique. Our user study demonstrates that, for sufficiently complex interfaces, Adaptive Click-andCross slightly improves the performance of users with impaired dexterity compared to only modifying the interface or only modifying the cursor.

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Computer users with impaired dexterity face difficulties with tradi tional pointing methods, particularly on small, densely packed user interfaces. Past research in software-based solutions can usually be categorized as one of two approaches. They either modify the user interface to fit the users' needs or modify the user's interaction with the cursor. Each approach, however, has limitations. Modify ing the user interface increases the navigation cost of some items by displacing them to other screens, while enhanced area cursors, a pointing technique for small, densely packed targets, require users to perform multiple steps to acquire a target. This study aims to minimize the costs of these two approaches through a new inter action technique, Adaptive Click-and-Cross. The technique was found to lower error rates relative to traditional pointing (8.5% vs 16.0%) with slightly faster acquisition times compared to two other techniques for modifying the user interface or cursor.