Touch Typist was created in 1985 when David Batty went in to WH Smiths in Preston and saw a typing tutor for sale for £29.95. He told the shop assistant who he regularly chatted to, that the software was over priced and that he could write something better himself, the shop assistant challenged him, and he set about writing Touch Typist to prove his claim.
Two weeks later, after working flat out, David took a program in to show the shop assistant and he was amazed that it was better than the one he was selling, he said that David should market it. David then set about writing new features and expanding the software until it was ready for sale.
Since then David has continued to work on Touch Typist.
Below is a screenshot of Touch Typist from 1997.
Touch Typist has been written with BECTA guidelines in mind. It’s design covers as many of the FENTO standards that we can apply to software. This ensures that learning is enjoyable and efficient in both software led and student led modes.
Care has also been taken to ensure that Touch Typist is a typing tutor suitable for Dsylexic learners. We have deliberately made the software visually clear we have taken great care with font sizes and ensured that the software does not contain false words or any scrolling text.