Ananya has been blind since birth. When her class begins writing essays on computers, a teacher shows her what every good typist knows: the best typists never look at the keys either.
What this story trains
- Quotations split by narration.
"How will I type," she asked her mother that night, "when I cannot see the keys?" Track each opening and closing mark. - Key names with capitals.
Shift, Enter, F and J appear throughout. - A deliberate typo. Part 7 contains
"jome row" — the screen reader's version of a slipped finger. Type it exactly as written; correcting it is itself an error. - A title in quotation marks, with each main word capitalised.
The bumps on F and J
Mr. Fernandes calls them lighthouses. Almost every keyboard has a small raised ridge on the F and J keys so that your index fingers can find the home row without looking. Feel for them now, before you begin.
Whenever your hands drift during this lesson — and they will — do not look down. Find the bumps, reset, and continue. That single habit is what separates touch typing from fast hunting.
How to approach it
This is the clearest test in the course of whether you are truly typing by touch. Try to complete all eleven parts without a single glance at the keyboard. Accept a slower speed if you must; the habit matters more than the number.
Practice notes
Screen readers, which speak each letter and word aloud as it is typed, are how many blind and partially sighted people use computers every day. Touch typing is what makes them fast. If you find a part difficult, try reading it aloud to yourself first, then type it from memory with your eyes on the screen.