accessibility glossary

Sip-and-Puff Switch

An assistive input device operated by inhaling or exhaling through a straw-like tube, converting sips and puffs into switch activations for people with limited or no hand movement.

A sip-and-puff switch translates a gentle inhale or exhale into a binary or multi-level input signal, commonly used by people with high-level spinal cord injuries or other conditions affecting hand and arm control. It is typically paired with switch-accessible scanning software that highlights options in sequence until the user activates one with a sip or puff.

Websites and apps that support this population need to work correctly with switch-based scanning and keyboard emulation, since a sip-and-puff device usually reaches the operating system as a switch input rather than as a mouse or dedicated pointer.

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