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Karl Barksdale Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
(CTS) and related Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) are reaching epidemic
proportions due to poorly designed keyboards, a dramatic increase in the
amount of typing and clicking people do, and a two-decade long educational
push to encourage faster keyboarding at increasingly younger ages.
Some schools even have kindergarteners learning to type! Gender Biased Nerve Disorders
Recently, while presenting
speech recognition to teachers in Arizona, I asked, "How many are
experiencing pain in their hands, arms, shoulders or necks due to keyboarding
and mouse clicking?" About 11-12 hands went up. In a room roughly
split between the genders, nearly everyone that raised their hand was
a woman. Since there were approximately 45 people in the room, this reflected
the national trend of 1 in 4 keyboarders suffering RSI symptoms.
And nationally, women suffer RSI and carpal symptoms roughly 3
to 1 more than men. Keyboard and mouse related
CTS and RSI are gender biased physical and nerve disorders. I warned the
teachers that women over 30 must be especially careful to reduce the
number of keystrokes they make each day by at least 50%.
But even this may not be enough.
Many sufferers must cut their keyboard use by 90 to 95% or suffer
the long-term medical consequences. When You Feel the Pain
. . . You’ll Understand
The more you type, the more at risk you are. And the more years that
go by, the more likely you are to experience pain and even nerve damage.
But for so many computer instructors, it’s business as usual;
a – s – d – f – j – k – l – ; And why don't they think it is important? Because some computer
teachers and corporate trainers don’t suffer with RSI themselves,
they can easily dismiss their responsibility to teach speech solutions
to this growing problem. Normally, teachers don't experience high rates
of RSI. Teachers are constantly
interrupted by class breaks, calling role, helping students, and performing
other instructional tasks. This
(thankfully) takes them away from their keyboards, reducing the intensity
of their typing experience. This
is a nice bit of luck for teachers, but office workers who are chained
to their keyboards cannot afford the luxury of frequent breaks.
And the QWERTY keyboard is hurting them – by the millions. When you feel the pain yourself, you will instinctively ask yourself
this question, “Is this pain necessary?”
No! Pain isn’t a “fact-of-life” in the information age.
There is an alternative.
This epidemic can end quickly if we effectively train students
to use speech recognition software. Why Should Kids EVER Be
At Risk for RSI?
The sad part is, these disorders are creeping down to younger and younger
computer users. Once confined to a demographic between 30 and 55 years
of age, hundreds of thousands are suffering RSI in their twenties and
more than we care to admit are feeling the pain in their teens. (See the
article Kids Wrists at Risk
from U.S. News and World Report.) The more we force keyboarding on young children, the greater their
long-term risk for RSI and CTS.
Ironically, by the time these young students reach college age,
they will be talking to their computers as naturally as we talk on our
telephones today. So why
are we taking up valuable elementary and middle school instructional time
on a skill that is rapidly declining in importance? As for adults, in 1998, OSHA reported over 647,000 cases of RSI resulting
in nearly $15-20 billion in lost work time and workman's compensation
claims. Many experts believe
the numbers are understated. The
problem has increased dramatically since the mid-'80s when keyboards replaced
typewriters. One company reported that it costs nearly $50,000 for every
carpal tunnel injury an employee suffers. Let’s not add today’s
students to these RSI statistics.
Let’s teach alternative ways to use a computer. The Lamentable Legacy of
the Typewriter
Typewriters were not as guilty of giving users RSI because constant
breaks were built into the typing routine.
At the end of each sheet of paper, the typist had to remove the
paper and insert a new sheet and adjust the various mechanisms on the
machine. This broke up the
keystroke routine. Typewriters also stood higher off the desktop, forcing
the typist to avoid resting their hands directly on the carpal tunnel
region at the base of their wrists.
As I am fond of saying in my training sessions, "Today's mass-produced
keyboards have few redeeming features.
I long for the days of the electric typewriter." Albeit, the typewriter left us an unfortunate legacy.
Back in the days of mechanical typewriters, it was extremely easy
for a fast typists to type too fast!
This would cause the metal arms of the machine to jam together.
Some of us older folks remember jamming the keys on our old portable
Remington's or Underwood's. To slow typists down, the keyboard was organized in the most awkward
way possible. The keys we
use most often are in the most unbelievable places!
For example, the letter A is pressed with the weakest finger of
the left hand. The letter
E requires a reach of the middle finger on the left hand. Because most typists are right hand, the best way to slow
down the greatest number of typists was to emphasize the left hand.
This scientifically designed inefficiency was inherited by the modern
computer keyboard, and made worse by low-cost construction and bad keyboard
design. Can anyone explain
why do we use are weakest fingers to capitalize letters or to press Enter
or Return? With no built-in mechanical need for breaks to remove paper or to adjust
the typing mechanism, today's modern keyboard is a devastating tool.
Because we failed to change the method of keyboarding at the dawn
of the computer age, the current "QWERTY" method lives on, and
incidents of carpal tunnel and repetitive strain injuries have skyrocketed
from the mid-1980s, reaching epidemic proportions by the dawn of the new
millennium. While SpeakingSolutions.Com is not advocating the end of keyboarding,
we are asking the entire Business Education and workplace training communities
to follow these three dictums:
Recognize that continuous speech recognition software is simply a more
efficient and productive way to enter most types of data into computers. Our Mission
Speaking Solutions (www.speakingsolutions.com)
is launching a training campaign to help reduce repetitive strain injuries
(RSI) such as carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and other work-related musculoskeletal
disorders (WMSDs) caused by the common keyboard and the mouse. Over 200,000
carpal tunnel surgeries are performed in the United States each year.
Hundreds of thousands of workers toil with unnecessary pain at their workstations.
Computer input devices are particularly harmful to women, who suffer WMSDs
at a rate more than three times that of men. The human hand simply was
not designed for the constant repetitive motion required by constant keyboard
and mouse data entry. WMSDs are dramatically increasing. Eventually, one
in every four computer users may be afflicted by workplace computer related
injuries — unless something is done. So what are we to do?
For a start, we must
reduce the number keystrokes and mouse clicks our fingers make as we enter
data into our computers. Continuous speech recognition (CSR) offers a
way to increase productivity while reducing keystrokes and mouse clicks
dramatically. The astounding improvements in speech recognition software
made by Lernout & Hauspie (L&H VoiceXpress), IBM (ViaVoice), and
Dragon Systems (NaturallySpeaking), now make it possible to reduce our
dependence on the keyboard and the mouse. Users of these software packages
routinely voice-type at speeds in excess of 140 words per minute with
over 90 percent or better accuracy. Clearly, CSR is more efficient than
the keyboard at routine data entry. SpeakingSolutions.com
is seeking to retrain 25 to 50 million workers in North America within
the next five years in the use of speech software. Our training attacks
this health and safety problem in three ways:
To accomplish this initiative
we must start by retraining Business Educators and Human Resource Trainers.
These are the two training groups that have the greatest reach. Reports
are that for every one dollar spent in prevention, four dollars can be
saved in lost productivity. Help support the effort to find a win-win
solution to this growing problem. It is time to dispel some critical myths. The Proper Technique Myth
For decades and decades
we keyboarding/typing instructors have uttered our mantras:
If only this were a formula
to avoid RSI -- but it isn't. Too
many students leave their typing classes thinking that if they just type
properly, they can avoid injury.
This is a myth. For those who are susceptible,
the "proper technique" only delays the inevitable and typing
in the same position constantly can actually accelerate the problem.
For those who type on-the-job
the pattern has been set. How
many hundreds of thousands of people will follow these seven simple steps
to discomfort, numbness, and pain:
While it is essential
that keyboarding/typing teachers emphasize proper workstation ergonomics,
hand and wrist position, and to notice the signs of RSI and carpal tunnel,
they shouldn't believe for a second that proper technique will in any
way make a significant difference in this problem over the long-term. The body was not made
to work in the same position every hour of every day.
Move around, take breaks, fidget, adjust your chair if it helps;
but remember, if you type and click too much, you will be susceptible.
And the most effective injury prevention technique is to reduce keystrokes
and mouse clicks significantly.
There are five training
goals that we are pushing with all of our energy. If you feel you can
endorse our efforts toward attaining these goals, please email Speaking
Solutions at karlb@speakingsolutions.com. Five Goals
Note:
Are their problems associated
with talking too much to your computer?
Absolutely. Students
need to bring water bottles to voice-typing class and sip water constantly.
If they talk too much, they should stop talking and type for a
while. Don’t forget
the dictum, “Moderation in all things.” If you are interested in helping us meet one or more of these goals, send an email message to karlb@speakingsolutions.com
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