Word: keyboards
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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After nearly three years here and with virtually no warning, I was forced last week to hang up my keyboard. The reason is an insidious computer-related syndrome called Repetitive Strain Injury, for short RSI. But who would have guessed it? Sure, I work on a newspaper, I check my e-mail frequently and I concentrate in the social sciences, but my knowledge of computers is fairly limited and like the average student I don't spend more time at my keyboard than I have...
...assistant to Administrative Dean of the Faculty Nancy L. Maull, is in charge of gathering information about the University and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) initiative to respond to RSI. She reports that the FAS furniture replacement policy will allow students, faculty and staff who need (and request) keyboard trays to have them installed. But this addresses the furniture problem only after the fact. One of the most important aspects of preventing RSI is setting up a proper workstation. "What's really necessary," Goodman says, "is to get the right height for the person using the desk." He went...
What this means is that education about RSI must come simultaneously with the complete replacement of every desk and chair in student dormitories. Hassel said that within the next five years, "all the desks that can be retrofitted will be retrofitted" with non-adjustable keyboard trays. But this will still leave a substantial number of desks without keyboard trays, and the glaring problem of not having adjustable chairs will persist. For as Goodman pointed out, a non-adjustable keyboard tray will not necessarily be the right height for everyone...
...underway, Hassel told me, but until it's completed (and who knows when that will be) we have an epidemic to deal with. My adjustable chair should be arriving today, courtesy of Harvard, and as of last week I have a desk with a non-adjustable keyboard tray. But I could have used them before I had to stop typing...
First the superficial: at least be sure your environment is healthy. The top of your monitor should line up with your eyes. Contrary to idiotic design, your keyboard should actually be angled away from you. Keep your wrists level and above the table or wrist rest. Brush your teeth...