[consulting] OT: Keyboards and RSI

[Andrew Cohill]

Here are some things that work well for me (thirty plus years of  
keyboarding):

--Put the mouse as the same level as the keyboard.  I still see many  
many people with the mouse on the desk.  This will kill your shoulder  
and elbow because of the repetitive strain of moving your arm up and  
down.  Unless you like rotator cuff surgery, put the mouse next to  
the keyboard, even if you have to hack some sort of tray extension.

--And while it should not need to be mentioned, you need to get the  
keyboard off the desk and onto an adjustable keyboard tray--ideally  
with four axis adjustment:  in/out, up/down, left/right, and tilt  
angle. Tilt angle is very important for RSI and wrist problems; you  
should have a small negative tilt (downward slope) on the keyboard.

--You need a palm rest, either integrated into the keyboard, or a  
foam extension that you place at the base of the keyboard.  Your  
palms/wrists should not rest on any kind of edge.  I see many  
keyboard trays with a thin metal lip placed on the edge to keep the  
keyboard in place, but these often stick up just enough to dig into  
your wrist.  Over time, this continually pinching of nerves in your  
wrist will lead to pain and RSI.

--Get a good chair.  If you are experiencing back pain, while it  
could be related to keyboard problems, it more likely related to  
posture (which is severely aggravated if your keyboard is on the  
table).  Any chair that costs less than $500 is crap.  Many of you  
will be disappointed to hear that, but it is true.  Good chairs have  
carefully engineered support, and more levers rarely translates into  
a better chair.  Good chairs tend to run $650-$800, and I would  
recommend the Freedom chair.  It has very few adjustments but is  
extremely well designed.  If you think an $800 is an extravagance,  
consider that it will last ten years or more, and if you livelihood  
is sitting in front of a computer, it's a lot cheaper than surgery on  
your wrists or back.

If you have back pain, you need a different chair.  Note that the  
Aeron chair is highly overrated.  While it broke new ground, it has  
two major problems:  1)  the breathable fabric is like sandpaper and  
will ruin your clothes, especially if you keep anything in your back  
pockets (like a wallet), 2) the front edge of the chair, although  
designed with an appropriate downward slope, has a rigid edge that  
digs into your thighs and cuts blood flow to your legs--this is  
inexcusable.

--Keyboards--a split, contoured keyboard is a must.  It only feels  
odd for 2-3 days, and then you don't notice it anymore.  There are  
many good one, but my favorite is made by Datadesk.  It is one of  
only a very few keyboards that actually make the keys farther from  
the centerline bigger, so it is easier to hit them.  In other words,  
the "O" and "P" keys are wider than the "G" and "H" keys.

--Most mice are poorly designed.  They require a fairly tight grip to  
be usable, and this is often where RSI sets in.  Most people don't  
realize how muscle strain, continued over days and weeks, even the  
small amount of force required to grip a mouse, can damage muscles.   
A good mouse will require NO gripping pressure to use it.  This is  
very hard to understand until you use a mouse that does not require  
gripping pressure.  I've used a Contour Design Perfit mouse for  
nearly a decade.  It's big, but a pleasure to use.

--Finally, few doctors know a darn thing about any of this stuff, and  
are often too eager to recommend surgery.  The stats on RSI surgery  
are very grim--surgery often makes the problem MUCH WORSE.  There is  
a huge bundle of nerves passing through the muscle sheath on your  
wrist, and going in their and hacking away is extremely risky.   
Surgery should be a last resort only after spending as much as needed  
on better furniture and giving your body time to repair itself.

Good furniture and the right tools is usually cheaper than surgery, too.


Hope this helps.....(I'm trained as a human factors engineer).

Best regards,
Andrew


-------------------------------------------------
Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.
President
Design Nine, Inc.

Design Nine provides visionary broadband architecture,  
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