Keys to Low Stress - Brief Article

AS A PROFESSOR OF ERGONOMICS at Cornell University, Alan Hedge has investigated a lot of failed attempts to find a less stressful way to type. "Most of the keyboards that claim to be ergonomic really do diddly-squat," he says. But the vertical split-keyboard, made by Ergonomic-Interface Keyboard Systems in La Jolla, California, is different. Hedge's tests suggest that the accordionlike keyboard does reduce the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome.

Horizontal keyboards, the norm since the invention of the typewriter in the 1860s, force typists to twist their wrists downward, thus compressing the tunnel through which the nerves in the forearm pass. That pressure sometimes triggers carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition that, if left untreated, can lead to loss of sensation and use of the hands. The vertical split-keyboard, with keys facing outward, places the wrists in a more neutral, untwisted position. In trials on 12 touch typists, Hedge found that the split keyboard kept wrists in a low-stress position more than 75 percent of the time, as compared to less than 50 percent for conventional keyboards. "With the vertical keyboard, you're virtually never in a high-risk posit ion," says Hedge.

Right now the vertical split-keyboard exists only in prototype form. According to its creator, Jeffrey Spencer of Ergonomic-Interface, the improved design could actually be holding it back. Conventional-keyboard manufacturers, facing lawsuits by injured office workers, may be leery of licensing a technology that implies their past products were deficient.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Discover
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group