Ways to improve Blender accessibility

Hi friends,

I want to share something I'm struggling with and something I'm curious about.

Due to my physical disability (muscular dystrophy), I often have trouble using tools the way they were built. I'm always looking for creative workarounds and shortcuts.

I studied product design and engineering, and for my whole life, I’ve had a passion for making art. When I heard about Blender, I loved its promise: Create any 3D image you can imagine, without needing the physical strength to lift canvases or operate lathes. For the past few years, I was learning as much Blender as I could. Some things were quite difficult because I wanted to do them in non-standard ways (e.g., with an Apple Magic Mouse instead of a 3-button mouse), but I did my best to find or design solutions.

Then, a few months ago, I lost another muscle in my stronger hand. This means I can no longer use the computer setup I used before. Typing this message takes much more effort than it ever has. But rather than give up, I'm now even more motivated to find more accessible ways to use computers and Blender. I was especially encouraged by this video of someone with a spinal cord injury using a different CAD program (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSIABD6dU1U). I have tried a head mouse similar to his, but I'm finding that it’s not a silver bullet, and I think there are ways the design of Blender itself could reduce the strain on my muscles.

That leads me to my questions for you all: Is anyone interested in accessibility as a topic (whether or not you have disabilities)? Any advice or resources you know of that could help?

I found this thread on the Blender developer forum and plan to post my story there, too. https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-and-accessibility-for-people-with-disabilities/5241/8

I'm curious whether anyone else here is interested in accessibility as a topic (whether or not you have disabilities), or if you have any thoughts you want to share here or on that thread.

Thank you so much!

(P.S. I hope this post doesn't appear twice. I tried to save it as a draft first, but then couldn't find it again.)