Space around Touch Pad and Volume/Mute control

I have 2 questions and have not seen the answers yet to these so am wondering if someone can help me before I make my decision whether or not to buy an ASUS UL30a-X5.

1. Would someone mind measuring the gap between the touch pad and the space pad, and then the gap between the touch pad and the outer rim/edge of laptop? Reason I'm asking is because my husband just bought an 11.6" Acer Timeline and while he loves it, I find that when I use it I am constantly resting my forefinger on the space bar - not a good thing! I currently have a 15.4" Dell which gives me the luxury of resting my spare fingers around the touch pad where nothing else gets activated in the process. Perhaps it'll just take a bit of getting used to but I'm finding using the smaller Acer just isn't working yet for me. The 13.3" then sounds like a better way for me to go but pics of the touch pad area are difficult to gage how much forgiveness there is on the Asus.

2. I have worn hearing aids since I was a kid and so being able to alter the volume QUICKLY is very important for me. My current Dell has not been useful this way (and was not something I even thought about when purchasing it). So this time, I'm trying to 'wise-up' and see HOW/WHERE the volume is controlled on the Asus UL30a, and again, pics aren't helping me figure this out. Can someone please tell me how you change the volume and how quick it responds, like, is there a button on the side perhaps??? Also, is the volume LOUD as I struggle to hear you-tube videos at the moment on my Dell Inspiron 1525 and that's with volume up as loud as it will go??

Many thanks for all your kind help,
Carolyn