An entirely unscientific survey

[tzikeh]

I am left-handed. Recently, due to a temporary desk set-up, I've been mousing right-handed at work. My shoulder is *aching* from extending over to the right and I think I've pulled something in my back. I note that, when mousing left-handed, the mouse is right there next to the keyboard; I hardly have to move my arm at all to use it. But you right-handed people - the mouse (if you have the usual type of keyboard) is further off center because it has to be on the other side of the arrow keys and the numberpad. If your body is centered so that your hands rest naturally on the home-row, your right arm is constantly reaching away to mouse, whereas left-handed mousers comfortably mouse and type with minimal shoulder joint extension.

I've been in a job where I'm at the keyboard constantly, all day, for over ten years, plus I'm on the computer at night. I have never had even a twinge of an RSI. In just a few days mousing right-handed, I'm experiencing horrible back pain and my arm is sore.

Is there any evidence anywhere that any of you know of that RSI occurs more often, per capita, in right-handed mousers than in left? Are there keyboards where the number pad and the arrows are on the left, so that the right-handed mouser isn't put in this position?

Also? Ow.

Comments

[halimede.livejournal.com]

I can't answer your survey questions, but man, I've been lamenting over numpad placement for *years*. I want it detachable, or something. I think you could be very, very right about this.

[janeterry.livejournal.com]

Here's a study that touches on the question.

http://www.uq.edu.au/eaol/apr99/phillips.pdf

But it's probably impossible to do a fair comparison since left handed people tend to use their right hands more for mouse work.

Jane

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Well, it would be easy to do a fair comparison if they asked for "left-hand mousers" and "right-hand mousers", not just "left-handed people" and "right-handed people".

Something to ponder, at any rate.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Very interesting! I have carpal tunnel trouble in both sides, but it's different... my left hand has wrist trouble and my right side has trouble up near the elbow. I'm a righty and mouse with my right usually.

I cannot use mice with scroll wheels, to the point that I've taped over the wheel on the one that came with my desktop system. I get horrid pains in the knuckle of my middle finger when I use them for any length of time. And explaining that I only have carpal tunnel in my right middle finger gets me a lot of snickers in certain crowds. :-\

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

You might want to switch to a trackball if you're going to be stuck doing right-handed stuff. They do make keyboards with the extra keys on the left, but that's for left-handed people. Right-handers would have a hard time 10-keying with the left hand, I think.

I blew my wrists out with Win95 - I think it had something to do with having to remap my printers 5-6 times a day every day. Started with pain in the right, so I switched to left-handed mousing and blew out that one too. Not CT, but a bad case of tendonitis/RSI. The ergo/PT folk changed how I sat, got me a split keyboard, and switched me to left-handed trackballing. I didn't really have back pain, but they did point out that everything's all connected.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

As a person with pretty bad RSI, you have my sympathies. I've given up trying to find answers, i think, just because there seem to be so many opinions it's been of no help. I wish Macs were a little more keyboard oriented, frankly, because even though keyboarding is a major source of my problems, the mousing exacerbates it quite a lot.

Call me -- I have some stretches and exercises for your back that I can try to talk you through, that can help your neck and arms a little and ease off that pain. Andif you can, get a massage, it can really help pull out those muscles that are shortening from the reaching and overcompensating.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Hadn't thought about it much, as I've been used to the reaching for so long. Although I consider keyboard shortcuts to be my Very Best Friends, but more in terms of time (those seconds really can add up) than wear and tear on my body.

Now that you mention it, it would be nice if I could put the arrows and such on the other side, as I use them little enough and with enough conscious effort for it to be feasible to use them left-handed. Not so sure about the command keys in the same region, but I could probably get used to it.

The keypad would have to stay on the right, tho. 10-key might be hell on the wrist in long stretches, but with strictly numeric entering it's the only way to fly.

[unmisha.livejournal.com]

Huh. A quick search only turns up a BBC article about lefties being *more* susceptible to RSI: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/876012.stm

There are left-handed keyboards: http://www.hallogram.com/lefthand/ as well as the Dvorak keyboard/key-mapping which is far and away more comfortable than the standard QWERTY keyboards.
Sites:
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~dylan/dvorak/
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/

In our office, I've noticed that the lefties are more likely to ask for a trackball or other ergonomic pointing device to replace their mouse for when they move it to the left side of the keyboard.

Personally, I'm a righty, but I've had to add a trackball on the left to rest my right, I do so much mousing.

[michael-j-lucid.livejournal.com]

What about a left handed keyboard so you arent as off center? Or, an external (read: seperate) 10 key pad? Or even an exernal touchpad, I know good deal of people who use laptops so much that they prefer to use the touchpad all the time, which is USB. Google turns up a bunch on all of em.

I know, not what ya asked, but a possible workaround :)

Feel better! :)

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

My guess is that it's not about using the right hand per se, but something unergonomic about the temporary desk setup.

Here's hoping you get to go back to the normal one soon.

-J

[vickita.livejournal.com]

I am right-handed, and I have switched to trackpad keyboards at home and at work, because the mousing was messing with my shoulder (which already has problems). My trackpads are, of course, in the lower center of the keyboard. I hardly have to move my hands at all, although now (nothing is ever perfect) after a few particularly intense days at work in a row (I'm a webmaster/web designer/technical editor/project mgt. specialist/cook/bottle washer), my right hand will ache from holding it in that tense position while trackpadding.

The implication of the mouse being further off-center for righties than for lefties never even occurred to me. Huh.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

I have far less trouble with Mac mice than PC mice - the latter are taller, somehow by just enough to cause me trouble. For this reason, I used a trackpad on the PC at work, and I could stick it right above the numpad, so my arm didn't have to reach much at all. Once I started doing that, I had almost no trouble with my hand/wrist/arm, and what little I did have was usually because I was using the laptop in a contorted position on the couch, rather than from the mouse. FWIW.

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

When I had a work computer that was solely mine, I used to mouse left-handed. It was really, really nice. Comfortable. I did this at home as well when I was using a desktop...and one with a different setup.

I'm like wiliqueen in that I use the mouse as little as possible--even less than she does--and rely heavily on keyboard shortcuts.

I suspect that, as someone as entirely left-handed as you are, that your right shoulder and back muscles aren't as strong and limber, and don't have the endurance of your left ones, and so are even less disposed to reaching repeatedly over the keypad like that.

*sympathies* I hope you find a better solution quickly.