Archive-name: typing-injury-faq/general Version: $Revision: 4.1 $ $Date: 92/07/17 14:35:58 $ The Typing Injury FAQ -- sources of information for people with typing injuries, repetitive stress injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. @DATAPHONE@@CITY@@FIRST@@USER@By Dan Wallach or $2 donation, requested. c+health and sorehand are both IBM Listserv things. For those familiar with Listserv, here's the quick info: c+health -- subscribe to listserv@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu post to c+health@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu sorehand -- subscribe to listserv@vm.ucsf.edu post to sorehand@vm.ucsf.edu Quick tutorial on subscribing to a Listserv: % mail listserv@vm.ucsf.edu Subject: Total Listserv Mania! SUBSCRIBE SOREHAND J. Random Hacker INFO ? . That's all there is to it. You'll get bunches of mail back from the Listserv, including a list of other possible commands you can mail. Cool, huh? What'll those BITNET people think of, next? ==2== The soda.berkeley.edu archive I've started an archive site for info related to typing injuries. Just anonymous ftp to soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury. (128.32.131.179) Currently, you'll find: Informative files: typing-injury-faq/ general -- information about typing injuries (this file) keyboards -- products to replace your keyboard software -- software to watch your keyboard usage --NEW!-- keyboard-commentary -- my personal opinions on the keyboard replacements carpal.info -- info on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome carpal.surgery -- JAMA article on CTS surgery --NEW!-- tendonitis.info -- info on Tendonitis rsi-network/* -- archive of the RSI Network newsletter Programs: hsh.shar -- a program for one-handed usage of normal keyboards typewatch.shar -- tells you when to take a break --NEW!-- Pictures (in the gifs subdirectory): accukey1.gif -- fuzzy picture accukey2.gif -- fuzzy picture with somebody using it bat.gif -- the InfoGrip Bat comfort.gif -- the Health Care Comfort Keyboard datahand1.gif -- fuzzy picture datahand2.gif -- key layout schematic datahand3.gif -- a much better picture of the datahand --NEW!-- kinesis.gif -- the Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboard maltron[1-4].gif -- several pictures of Maltron products mikey1.gif -- the MIKey mikey2.gif -- Schematic Picture of the MIKey twiddler1.gif -- "front" view twiddler2.gif -- "side" view wave.gif -- the Iocomm `Wave' keyboard If you're unable to ftp to soda, send me e-mail and we'll see what we can arrange. ==3== General info on injuries First, and foremost of importance: if your wrists are hurting at all, then you absolutely need to go see a doctor. As soon as you possibly can. The difference of a day or two can mean the difference between a short recovery and a long, drawn-out ordeal. GO SEE A DOCTOR. Now, your garden-variety doctor may not necessarily be familiar with this sort of injury. Generally, any hospital with an occupational therapy clinic will offer specialists in these kinds of problems. DON'T WAIT, THOUGH. GO SEE A DOCTOR. Ahh, you say, but I'm not that bad. Yes you are. Any of the following are signs that you should go see a doctor. More than one means you absolutely *must* get to a doctor, immediately. - any tension, anywhere in your elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, fingers - pain, whether low throbbing or intense stinging - feeling cold - tingling - numbness You could have any of a number of problems, although if you catch it soon enough, you may be lucky enough to avoid some of the worse ones. The two main types of injuries you've probably heard of are tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. In a nutshell, tendonitis is when some of your tendons are inflamed. Normally, you use your tendons and muscles all the time, and everything works. Sure, you just moved your T.V. set, and now your arm hurts a little, so you sit down, have a beer, and watch T.V. Your arm calms down, and life is good. However, when you're typing, you never really give your fingers a chance to heal themselves, if they get hurt. If you ignore the pain and keep on typing, you piss your tendons off. Voila! Tendonitis. Carpal tunnel syndrome happens when you continue ignoring the pain, and your tendons get more and more inflamed. Eventually, they squish the bones in your wrist, which squishes the nerve that runs up and connects to all your fingers. That nerve runs through, you guessed it, the carpal tunnel. Well, as you might imagine, squishing nerves is generally a bad thing. And, unlike tendons, nerves don't heal very well. The carpal tunnel release surgery that you've probably heard about attempts to remove some of the pressure on your nerve by re-arranging some things in your wrist. Obviously, the above is a gross over-simplification of a complicated problem. The files available on the soda archive go into greater detail. ==4== Typing posture, ergonomics, prevention Of course, for every messed up typing posture, there's a different exciting injury you can get. What? Proper posture matters? You bet. Push back from your desk and follow these instructions. If your chair is height-adjustable, raise yourself so your feet are flat on the floor. Sit up straight. As straight as you can manage. Hang your arms down, limp. Now, just from the elbows, lift your hands up to make around a 90 degree angle. Your elbows should still be at your side. Okay. See where your hands are, now? That's where you want your keyboard to be. You want your hands to be right over the keyboard, dangling your fingers down onto the keys. Wrist pads are bad. Very bad. Your wrists shouldn't be resting on anything. Instead, you're arranging your body so your shoulders bear the weight of your arms. But, you say, your keyboard is 6 inches higher, up on your table. Well, that's a problem you need to fix. Most modern modular furniture can have fancy keyboard drawers or tables to put the keyboard at a better height. Barring that, putting the keyboard in your lap is often better than nothing. If you're using your lap, it often helps to take the keys, wallets, etc. out of your front pockets, so you don't have weird-shaped objects pressing into your arms. But, you say, your chair's arm rests are getting in the way. This is another problem you need to fix. If you're lucky, all you need to do is get a screwdriver and remove the arms. If you're unlucky, you need to go find a new chair, or invest in a hack-saw. Now, some of the really expensive chairs have height-adjustable elbow-rests. It's a personal call, whether they're good for you, or not. Now that you've arranged yourself, look at your hands on the keyboard. You want your torso centered on the middle keys, with your forearms coming in at the same angles. Normally, you might bend your wrists sideways to line your fingers up with the home row. This is actually a bad idea. You might want to try typing at an angle, so your wrists come in at their natural angle, and your fingers extend a little more. If you're injured, this may or may not be a very good idea. Consult your doctor. But, you say, you just can't get comfortable on your old keyboard. Well, you should look into getting a new one. A number of manufacturers make keyboards which are anything but flat. Consult the keyboard-alternatives-faq for more information. ==5== Requests for more info Clearly, the above information is incomplete. The typing-injury archive is incomplete. There's always more information out there. If you'd like to submit something, please send me mail, and I'll gladly throw it in. If you'd like to maintain a list of products or vendors, that would be wonderful! I'd love somebody to make a list of chair/desk vendors. I'd love somebody to make a list of doctors. I'd love somebody to edit the above two sections, looking for places where I've obviously goofed. -- Dan Wallach "One of the most attractive features of a Connection dwallach@nas.nasa.gov Machine is the array of blinking lights on the faces of its cabinet." -- CM Paris Ref. Manual, v6.0, p48. * PCB/UseNet Gateway from Sparkware #3 Archive-name: typing-injury-faq/keyboards Version: $Revision: 4.1 $ $Date: 92/07/17 14:35:42 $ The Alternative Keyboard FAQ By Dan Wallach or The opinions in here are my own, unless otherwise mentioned, and do not represent the opinions of any organization or vendor. [Current distribution: sci.med, news.answers, and e-mail to c+health@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu and sorehand@vm.ucsf.edu] Information in this FAQ has been pieced together from phone conversations, e-mail, and product literature. While I hope it's useful, the information in here is neither comprehensive nor error free. If you find something wrong or missing, please mail me, and I'll update my list. Thanks. All phone numbers, unless otherwise mentioned, are U.S.A. phone numbers. All monetary figures, unless otherwise mentioned, are U.S.A. dollars. Products covered in this FAQ: The Bat DataHand Comfort Keyboard System Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboard Maltron The Tony! Ergonomic KeySystem The MIKey The Wave The Minimal Motion Computer Access System Twiddler Half-QWERTY Microwriter Braille 'n Speak Octima AccuKey GIF pictures of many of these products are available via anonymous ftp from soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury. (128.32.131.179) If you can't ftp, send me mail, and I'll uuencode and mail them to you (they're pretty big...) ============== The Bat old phone number: 504-336-0033 current phone number: 504-776-8082 Infogrip, Inc. 812 North Blvd. Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802, U.S.A. Ward Bond (main contact) David Vicknair (did the Unix software) 504-766-1029 Shipping: Now. Supports: Mac, IBM PC (serial port -- keyboard port going through FCC approval). No other workstations supported, but serial support for Unix with X Windows has been written. PC and Mac are getting all the real attention from the company. Price: $495 (dual set -- each one is a complete keyboard by itself) $295 (single) DataHand 602-860-8584 Industrial Innovations, Inc. 10789 North 90th Street Scottsdale, Arizona 85260-6727, U.S.A. Mark Roggenbuck (contact) Supports: IBM PC and Macintosh. Shipping: In beta. "Big backlog" -- could take 3 months to get one. Making them "as-needed." Made by hand. Price: $1200/unit for the pair. Minimum order: 2. Each of the four main fingers has five switches each: forward, back, left, right, and down. The thumbs have a number of switches. The idea is that your hands never have to move to use the keyboard. The whole unit tilts in its base, as a mouse. Comfort Keyboard System 414-253-4131 FAX: 414-253-4177 Health Car Keyboard Company N61 W15150 Wigwam Drive Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin 53051 U.S.A. Jeffrey Szmanda (President -- contact) Shipping: late August. Purchase agreements will be shipping soon. Supports: PC Mac Planned future support: Decision Data IBM 122-key layout Unisys UTS-40 Sun Sparc Silicon Graphics Others to be supported later. The hardware design is relatively easy for the company to re-configure. Price: starts at $590. The idea is that one keyboard works with everything. You purchase "compatibility modules", a new cord, and possibly new keycaps, and then you can move your one keyboard around among different machines. It's a three-piece folding keyboard. The layout resembles the standard 101-key keyboard, except sliced into three wedges. Each section is on a custom telescoping universal mount. You can rearrange the three sections (have the keypad in the middle if you want). Each section is otherwise normal-shaped (i.e.: you put all three sections flat, and you have what looks like a normal 101-key keyboard). Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboard 206-455-9220 (old number: 206-241-4595) 206-241-9252 (fax -- possibly an old number) Kinesis Corporation 15245 Pacific Highway South, Seattle, Washington 98188, U.S.A. Shirley Lunde (VP Marketing -- contact) Shipping: first ones in August, but they're already sold. Volume sales after that. Supports: PC. Mac and Sun Sparc in the works. Price: $690. Volume discounts available. The layout has a large blank space in the middle. Each hand has its own set of keys, laid out to minimize finger travel. Thumb buttons handle many major functions (enter, backspace, etc.). You should be able to remap the keyboard in firmware (very nice when software won't allow the reconfig). Foot pedals are also in the works (for example, replace shift with a foot pedal). Maltron (+44) 081 398 3265 (United Kingdom) PCD-Maltron Limited 15 Orchard Lane, Each Moseley Surrey KT8 OBN, United Kingdon Pamela and Stephen Hobday (contacts) U.S. Distributor: Jim Barrett Applied Learning Corp. 1376 Glen Hardie Road Wayne, PA 19087 Phone: 215-688-6866 (NOTE: I had a typo here, last time) Supports: PC's, Amstrad 1512/1640, BBC B, BBC Master, should have Mac by the end of the year Price: 375 pounds $735 shipped in the U.S.A. (basically, converted price + shipping) The cost is less for BBC computers, and they have a number of accessories, including carrying cases, switch boxes to use both your normal keyboard and the Maltron, an articulated arm that clamps on to your table, and training 'courses' to help you learn to type on your Maltron. You can also rent a keyboard for 10 pounds/week + taxes. U.S. price: $120/month, and then $60 off purchase if you want it. Shipping: Now (in your choice of colors: black or grey) Maltron has four main products -- a two-handed keyboard, two one-handed keyboards, and a keyboard designed for handicapped people to control with a mouth-stick. The Tony! Ergonomic KeySystem 415-969-8669 Tony Hodges The Tony! Corporation 2332 Thompson Court Mountain View, CA 94043, U.S.A. Supports: Mac, PC, IBM 3270, Sun, and DEC. Shipping: possibly by the end of the year. Price: $625 (you commit now, and then you're in line to buy the keyboard. When it ships, if it's cheaper, you pay the cheaper price. If it's more expensive, you still pay $625) The Tony! should allow separate positioning of every key, to allow the keyboard to be personally customized. A thumb-operated mouse will also be available. The MIKey 301-933-1111 Dr. Alan Grant 3208 Woodhollow Drive Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, U.S.A. Shipping: "Should be Available in One Year." Supports: PC, Mac (maybe) Price: $200 (estimated) The keyboard is at a fixed angle, and incorporates a built-in mouse operated by the thumbs. Function keys are arranged in a circle at the keyboard's left. The Wave (was: 213-) 310-644-6100 FAX: 310-644-6068 Iocomm International Technology 12700 Yukon Avenue Hawthorne, California 90250, U.S.A. Robin Hunter (contact -- in sales) Cost: $99.95 + $15 for a set of cables Works with: PC only. Shipping: now. Iocomm also manufactures "ordinary" 101-key keyboard (PC/AT) and 84-key keyboard (PC/XT), so make sure you get the right one. The one-piece keyboard has a built-in wrist-rest. It looks *exactly* like a normal 101-key PC keyboard, with two inches of built-in wrist rest. The key switch feel is reported to be greatly improved. The Minimal Motion Computer Access System 508-263-6437 508-263-6537 (fax) Equal Access Computer Technology Dr. Michael Weinreigh 39 Oneida Rd. Acton, MA 01720, U.S.A. Price: InfoGrip-compatible: "a few hundred dollars" + a one-handed Bat For their own system: $300 (DOS software) + "a few hundred dollars" Shipping: these are custom-made, so an occupational therapist would make moulds/do whatever to make it for you. You can buy one now. Supports: PC only, although the InfoGrip-compatible version might work with a Mac. In a one-handed version, there is exactly one button per finger. In a two-handed version, you get four buttons per finger, and the thumbs don't do anything. You can also get one-handed versions with three thumb buttons -- compatible with the InfoGrip Bat. Basically, get it any way you want. They also have a software tutorial to help you learn the chording. Works on a PC under DOS, not Windows. Planning on Macintosh and PC/Windows support. No work has been done on a Unix version, yet. Twiddler 516-474-4405, or 800-638-2352 Handykey 141 Mt. Sinai Ave. Mt. Sinai, NY 11766 Chris George (President) Shipping: now. Price: $199. Supports: PC only. Mac and X Windows in the works. The Twiddler is both a keyboard and a mouse, and it fits in one hand. The cabling leaves your normal keyboard available, also. Most applications work, and Windows works fine. DESQview has trouble. GEOWorks also has trouble -- mouse works, keyboard doesn't. Half-QWERTY (Canada) 416-749-3124 The Matias Corporation 178 Thistledown Boulevard Rexdale, Ontario, Canada M9V 1K1 E-mail: ematias@dgp.toronto.edu Supports: Mac and IBM (but, not Windows) Price (U.S.): $84.95 ($79.95 + $5 shipping) (Canada): $90.55 ($79.95 + $5 shipping + $5.60 GST) (Ontario): $96.95 ($79.95 + $5 shipping + $5.60 GST + $6.40 PST) Shipping: Now. This thing is purely software. No hardware at all. The software will mirror the keyboard when you hold down the space bar, allowing you type one-handed. AccuKey 703-961-3576 Vatell Corp. P.O. Box 66 Christiansburg, VA 24073 (This info provided by Wes Hunter ) Price: ?? Shipping:: I believe that they are not shipping a product yet. Some arm twisting might get an evaluation unit. Specifications: 2" x 7" x 12"; 2 lbs.; 8 ternary keys; characters input by chording; emulates any conventional keyboard character set; plug compatible models for PC/AT, PC/XT, and all CRT terminals; no software mods needed Octima (Israel) 972-4-5322844 FAX: (+972) 3 5322970 Ergoplic Keyboards Ltd. P.O. Box 31 Kiryat Ono 55100, Israel (info from Mandy Jaffe-Katz ) A one-handed keyboard. Microwriter AgendA (U.K.) (+44) 81 685 0300 FAX: (+44) 81 640 8813 Microwriter Systems plc 2 Wandle Way Willow Lane Mitcham, Surrey CR4 4NA, United Kingdom (Info from Carroll Morgan ) The AgendA is a personal desktop assistant (PDA) style machine. You can carry it along with you. It has chording input. You can also hook it up to your PC, or even program it. It costs just under 200 pounds, with 128K memory. Braille 'n Speak 301-879-4944 Blazie Engineering 3660 Mill Green Rd. Street, Md 21154, U.S.A. (information provided by Doug Martin ) The Braille N Speak uses any of several Braille codes for entering information: Grade I, Grade II, or computer Braille. Basically, letters a-j are combinations of dots 1, 2, 4, and 5. Letters k-t are the same combinations as a-j with dot 3 added. Letters u, v, x, y, and z are like a-e with dots 3 and 6 added. (w is unique because Louis Braille didn't have a w in the French alphabet.) =========== Thanks go to Chris Bekins for providing the basis for this information. Thanks to the numerous contributors: Doug Martin Carroll Morgan Mandy Jaffe-Katz Wes Hunter Paul Schwartz H.J. Woltring Dan Sorenson Chris VanHaren Ravi Pandya Leonard H. Tower Jr. Dan Jacobson and everybody else who I've probably managed to forget. The opinions in here are my own, unless otherwise mentioned, and do not represent the opinions of any organization or vendor. -- Dan Wallach "One of the most attractive features of a Connection dwallach@nas.nasa.gov Machine is the array of blinking lights on the faces of its cabinet." -- CM Paris Ref. Manual, v6.0, p48. --- * PCB/UseNet Gateway from Sparkware #3 ๙HEADER:USENET Path: channel1!uupsi!psinntp!uunet!olivea!sun-barr!ames!data.nas.nasa.gov!news From: dwallach@nas.nasa.gov (Dan Wallach) Newsgroups: sci.med,news.answers Subject: FAQ: Typing Injuries (2/3): Keyboard Alternatives [montly posting] Summary: everything you ever wanted to know about replacing your keyboard Message-ID: Date: 20 Jul 92 20:02:46 GMT Expires: 2 Sep 1992 20:03:50 GMT Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov Reply-To: Dan Wallach Followup-To: sci.med Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Lines: 409 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu ออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออออ Date: 07-21-92 (05:26) Number: 5979 Channel 1 (R) [HST 192 To: ALL Refer#: NONE From: DAN WALLACH Read: YES Subj: FAQ: TYPING INJURIES (3/3 Conf: (1446) answers ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ๚ Newsgroup: news.answers ๚ Message-ID: ๚ Subject: FAQ: Typing Injuries (3/3): Software Monitoring Tools [montly post Archive-name: typing-injury-faq/software Version: 1.2, 17th July 1992 This FAQ is actually maintained by Richard Donkin . I post it, along with the other FAQ stuff. If you have questions, you want to send mail to Richard, not me. -- Dan Software Tools to help RSI by monitoring typing ----------------------------------------------- This file describes tools, primarily software, to help with RSI by monitoring typing. Please let me know if you know any other tools, or if you have info or opinions on these, and I will add the info to this file. Richard Donkin Hoskyns Group plc Internet mail: 190 City Road, LONDON EC1V 2QH Work: richardd@hoskyns.co.uk Tel: +44 71 251 2128 CIX: richardd@cix.compulink.co.uk Fax: +44 71 251 2853 Tool: At Your Service (commercial software) Available from: US: Bright Star, +1 (206) 451 3697 Platforms: Mac, Windows Description: Provides calendar and other functions, also warns you when to take a break (configurable). Has a few recommendations on posture, and exercises. Not sure if it requires sound hardware. Tool: AudioPort (sound card and software) Available from: US: Media Vision, +1 (510) 226 2563 Platforms: PC Description: A sound card to plug into your PC parallel port. Includes 'At Your Service'. Tool: Lifeguard (commercial software) Available from: Visionary Software P.O. Box 69447 Portland, OR 97201 Tel: (503) 246-6200 Platforms: Mac, DOS (Windows version underway) Description: Aimed at preventing RSI. Warns you to take a break with dialog box and sound. Includes a list of exercises to do during breaks, and information on configuring your workstation in an ergonomic manner. Price: $59.95. Tool: EyerCise (commercial software) Available from: RAN Enterprises One Woodland Park Dr. Haverhill, MA 01830 Tel: 800-451-4487 Platforms: DOS, Windows, OS/2 PM Description: Aimed at RSI and eye strain, this appears to warn you of when to take breaks. A demo disk is available. Quote from advert follows, courtesy of Julie A. Fores: "EyerCise is a Windows program that breaks up your day with periodic sets of stretches and visual training exercises. The stretches work all parts of your body, relieving tension and helping to prevent Repetitive Strain Injury. The visual training exercises will improve your peripheral vision and help to relieve eye strain. Together these help you to become more relaxed and productive." "The package includes the book _Computers & Visual Stress_ by Edward C. Godnig, O.D. and John S. Hacunda, which describes the ergonomic setup for a computer workstation and provides procedures and exercises to promote healthy and efficient computer use. An on-line Repetitive Strain Injury checklist will help you set up your workplace to prevent RSIs. Cost is $69.95 including shipping and handling." Tool: Typewatch (freeware) Available from: Email to richardd@hoskyns.co.uk anonymous ftp soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/typewatch.shar Platforms: UNIX (tested on SCO and SunOS) Description: Warns when to take a break, logs typing activity to a file. Crude but effective. Tool: hsh (public domain) Available from: anonymous ftp soda.berkeley.edu:pub/typing-injury/hsh.shar Platforms: UNIX (don't know which ones) Description: allows one-handed typing and other general keyboard remappings. Only works through tty's (so, you can use it with a terminal or an xterm, but not most X programs). -- Dan Wallach "One of the most attractive features of a Connection dwallach@nas.nasa.gov Machine is the array of blinking lights on the faces of its cabinet." -- CM Paris Ref. Manual, v6.0, p48.