# Microsoft discriminates against Thalidomiders **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-discriminates-against-thalidomiders/34004 "2000-09-21T14:36:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-discriminates-against-thalidomiders/34004/1 "2000-09-21T14:36:30Z")
Control+Alt+Delete Whereas with my Mac at home I can sign on with my elbow if I want to, at work I have to put down my coffee and wipe off my left hand (my donut hand) every morning. How does Microsoft accommodate people who are physically unable to accomplish this bizarre little bit of choreography? ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-discriminates-against-thalidomiders/34004/2 "2000-09-21T14:52:22Z")
Easily, Windows have a large range of accessability features to help people use the products. For the “three finger salute” question, there is a feature you can turn on called “sticky keys” it makes it so you can just tap the shift key and shift stays on until you tap it off, same with alt and ctrl. this makes it so people who cannot easily hold multiple keys can still do all the keystrokes within the program. ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-discriminates-against-thalidomiders/34004/3 "2000-09-21T17:13:28Z")
If you have non-miniscule hands and a reasonable keyboard, you should be able to hit ctrl-alt-del with one hand. Most keyboards have a ctrl and an alt on the right side under the right shift key. If you have **big** hands, you can hit the alt with your thumb, the ctrl with the tip of a curled up index finger, and the number-key-pad ‘./del’ key with your extended pinky. I can no longer do this with my ‘Microsoft EvilKeyboard’, the spacing is too much. I used to do it all the time with standard keyboards. For somewhat smaller hands (but still probably at least ‘Medium’ in glove size) you can hit the ctrl and alt as described above, and hit the del key that is to the right of the backspace key with your extended middle finger. This I can do easily on my keyboard. You might also try alt with the thumb, ctrl with the middle finger curled up, and del with an extended ring finger. For me, it’s like a single keystroke. BTW, the ctrl+alt combo is easier with older keyboards that don’t have the evil ‘windows’ key, the entire purpose of which is to piss me off. But I digress. OK, how geeky am I to have come up with this? I seriously came up with this 6 years ago in response to a machine I had to reboot hourly for configuration changes. ---
**Author:** ![LazarusLong42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@LazarusLong42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LazarusLong42)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-discriminates-against-thalidomiders/34004/4 "2000-09-21T18:06:55Z")
I generally use thumb for right-alt, curled ring for right-ctrl, middle for delete.