Can your keyboard seriously harm you?
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is a health condition that can effect anyone at any age and can cause serious pains in the wrists, fingers and forearms. It might not sound major but believe us, if you’re an office worker who continually types on a keyboard, you do want to carry on reading. We are going to explain to you what you can do to ensure that your keyboard doesn’t cause you any harm.
As a leading supplier of keyboards and peripherals, Keyboard Specialists Ltd (KBS) know about anything and everything to do with keyboards, and we especially know that by not using your keyboard correctly it can cause serious aches in the hands and wrists – this condition is known as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury). In this blog we are going to explain to you how to keep yourself safe from being injured by your keyboard and we have been speaking to doctors in the NHS to give you the best expert advice. After reading this if you think you are suffering or in risk of suffering from RSI, please contact us on 0203 474 0234 or at info@keyboardspecialists.co.uk and we will be more than happy to help you prevent further aches and pains.
What is Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)?
RSI is a potentially disabling illness caused by prolonged repetitive hand movements (such as typing on a keyboard) and symptoms include shooting pains that can run through the fingers, hands, wrists, forearms and the back. Taken from the NHS Website. But don’t worry! There are preventions that both you and your employer can do to prevent the symptoms progressing into a serious injury, or prevent RSI all together.
Typing Advice:
1. Keep your wrists in a neutral position.
2. Not bending your wrists inwards, outwards or upwards while typing.
So how do you do this? Let us start with your keyboards position, and how you can adjust it better to suit your typing. The correct keyboard position should be when the keyboard is at or below elbow level – this gives the best ‘neutral’ wrist positioning while typing. You can also use a gel wrist rest when taking a break from typing and this will support the arms a lot more than if you were to wrest your arms on a hard table top surface.
Anything else you do isn’t to do with your position or how you type, it is just changing the settings on your computer to make typing easier and more comfortable.
• Adjusting your keyboards key repeat rate to avoid making mistake.
• Use sticky keys to avoid having to hold down a ‘key modifier’ such as the shift, control or alt keys.
• Change the settings in your mouse to ‘slow’ – this will reduce muscle tension in the arms when using the mouse.
• Use keyboard shortcuts instead of keep using the mouse.
• Download Mousetool Free Software which takes away the ‘click’ on the mouse – which many people find painful. Please be aware that you must get permission from your employer before downloading any software.
This is everything you need to know about how you can reduce RSI and ensure you do not suffer long lasting pains from typing at work. Keyboard Specialists also offer specifically designed keyboards (ergonomic keyboards) which will be able to support you a bit more than the ‘standard’ Microsoft keyboards do. Please contact us on 0203 474 0234 or at info@keyboardspecialists.co.uk and we will be able to discuss any questions you have about RSI, or explain further about the ergonomic keyboards you might have for sale.