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A MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO KEYBOARD SAFETY, INJURY PREVENTION AND ACCESSIBILITY

A Multifaceted Approach to Keyboard Safety, Injury Prevention and Accessibility

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A MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO KEYBOARD SAFETY, INJURY PREVENTION AND ACCESSIBILITY

Abstract

Keyboards are used in every workplace in the world and are becoming a part of all education as

well. It is safe to say that the keyboard as we know it today is not going anywhere soon. This

raises the issue of injuries related to this increasing keyboard use. As this trend continues the

number of cases of disorders will skyrocket and the possibility of a crisis must be considered.

When trying to improve the keyboards use, a multifaceted approach will find the optimal way to

use a keyboard. There are four primary aspects of keyboard use. The first two are the ergonomic

design of the keyboard and the key type used. These are important because they are the physical

changes that fit the process to the person. The third is the hardest to convince longtime users to

adopt, to rearrange the layout of the keys. The last is to educate users on the proper use of

keyboards. Education is important because if used alone it has a strong impact. Traditional

approaches to improving ergonomics in keyboard use have been to focus on only one of these

aspects, this needs to change. When considering typing as a system improving all aspects of it

will lead to a sum greater than its parts. By analyzing case studies and research related to

keyboards trends will become clear. Commonplace actions and their problems can be used to

address the deeper issue of keyboard use. Keyboard related injuries are not issues to ignore. A

further consideration is layouts designed for users with disabilities. While they may not be the

majority their use of computers still relies on a keyboard. By making keyboards designed

specifically for the situation an individual might find themselves usability can also be increased.

There are children entering school that will use computers daily. This will be the first generation

to use keyboards their entire lives. Acting now will have the strongest impact on this important

cause.
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A MULTIFACETED APPROACH TO KEYBOARD SAFETY, INJURY PREVENTION AND ACCESSIBILITY

A Multifaceted Approach to Keyboard Safety, Injury Prevention, and Accessibility

Introduction

Keyboard ergonomics is not a new idea but in recent years has become a more

fashionable trend. The common approach to making a typing experience better is to redesign the

keyboard itself. This approach is obvious because changing somethings physical aspects should

have a large effect on the physical aspects of the user. Ergonomics inherently deals with human-

machine interaction, which keyboard use is categorized as. In a study by Rempel et al. (2007) it

is shown that “when all factors except keyboard (use) are held constant, wrist and forearm

posture are strongly influenced by keyboard design.” This is not to say there are no there are no

other components of proper keyboard use, but rather that this singular change is significant and

measurable.

Literature Review

Keyboard Design and Education

A challenge to changing the keyboard is the nature of humans to like what they know.

When you go to a workplace, keyboard use is not something that people want or need to think

about often. Of those surveyed a majority were willing to learn a non-traditional keyboard (see

Appendix A willingness to learn new keyboard data). That other 43 % are the ones that will be

considerably harder to convince. They use a keyboard every day but it is not something they

need to consider past this. To go into an area and inform workers they will need to learn a new

design the response will be immediate. People are aware of what they are comfortable with and

will make the familiar choice (Rempel et al., 2007). The best way to approach this type of
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situation is armed with data, and reason for these changes. According to Rempel, it is important

that users understand the goals of altering keyboards in their workstation.

Tempering expectations of users when it comes to a reconfiguration of the layout is

important. When using slightly different designs such as curved ergonomic keyboards

productivity will go down at first, taking as many as 2 days to recover previous speed (Swanson

et al., 1997). This additional hit must be something include in any keyboard education. By

understanding not only why they are changing but that it will not be immediate is key. Once the

learning curve of a new design has been overcome users will then find that they do not

immediately feel a decrease in discomfort. Relief from a new type of keyboard can take weeks

even months (Tittiranonda as cited in Rempel et al., 2007). This fact will surprise many but

knowledge of it will allow this 2-week goal easier to meet. If they are expecting results

overnight they will find themselves disappointed. In the worst case, they may give up quickly

enough to have not overcome their learning curve and be less willing in the future to try again.

Personal experience drives how people react to change and this kind of experience is a worst-

case scenario when trying to implement improved keyboard ergonomics. When surveyed a

majority said they had been at some point exposed to keyboard ergonomics instruction (see

Appendix B for ergonomics instruction data). This means that training still has holds a vital role

with almost half of people having never been exposed. Training becomes important with new

keyboards because the initial learning curve is hard to overcome along.

Another approach when considering a new layout is the reduction in fatigue and

discomfort. The reason someone might be switching to a new keyboard design may lie outside

both these conditions. In this case, the reduction in fatigue and discomfort will serve as an added

bonus to a change of design and may lead to the user being more willing. When considering a
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long period of work, the rates of fatigue and discomfort vary drastically between keyboard type

(Swanson et al., 1997). When working to better ergonomics of keyboards the first step is a

different keyboard and the training necessary to become proficient on this new keyboard.

Keyboards purpose built with ergonomics in mind are preferred over basic keyboards with

keyboards built into laptops being the least preferred (Rempel et al., 2007).

Keyboard Layout

The layout of the keys is something that most would not consider. This is clear when

keyboard users surveyed prefer QWERTY (see Appendix C for keyboard preference

information). There are several popular layouts, some are regional and others are for English

language typing in specific. QWERTY, Dvorak, and Colemak are all English language-based

keyboard layouts, and such they are built with English word structure in mind (Nakić-Alfirević

et al., 2004). In the beginning, there were many layouts as typewriter manufacturers tried out

different layouts. In the end QWERTY became the standard, but it had little to do with typing

speed, and in fact, the design had slowing down typists in mind.

The impacts of the layout are most notable in the speed of a typist. Speed depends very

much upon the layout of the keys. Touch typing is not a serial process that is done one finger at

a time, instead it is instead parallel process. This means future used fingers prepare for the next

keystroke in advanced (Işeri et al., 2015). If, for instance, the next key is on the same hand then

you will not be able to prepare for that keystroke. There needs to be a back and forth between

hands as often as possible to increase typing speed. This problem is exacerbated when the next

key is on the same finger as the current (Işeri et al., 2015). The Dvorak layout was built with

speed in mind (Nakić-Alfirević et al., 2004). The goals of this layout is to set the keys up in a
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way to reduce the inter-key delay. This is accomplished with several principles. English tends

to alternate between vowels and consonants, so with the goal of alternating back and forth

between hands often, there is merit in putting all the vowels on one side of the keyboard (Işeri et

al., 2015).

Fatigue is another major consideration in keyboard layouts and it comes from two main

sources, the distance that the fingers have to travel, and the strength of different fingers. The

strength and dexterity of your fingers decreases as you move from index to pinky (Nakić-

Alfirević et al., 2004). Some layouts have common letters far from the index finger and these

outer fingers become fatigued faster. The layouts we have today have been crafted by humans

for humans, but with new problem-solving methods, there are algorithms that take a

mathematical approach of optimization to create new designs.

Disabilities

There are many people with very limited motor functions in the world today. This can in

some cases mean the loss of speech. There are keyboards for these types of individual utilizing

single button interfaces or a cursor. People with these levels of disability rely on these

keyboards for a majority of interactions (Francis et al., 2011). The problem with these types of

systems is that they tend to not be catered for these disabled individuals. This is seen in many

systems that still utilize a QWERTY layout keyboard, even though they do not offer 10 finger

input because QWERTY is the standard. The very basis of the normal keyboard is the 3 rows of

letters which is without a doubt unsuitable for single digit input (Li et al., 2006). Alternate

layouts become a possibility and clusters of letters reduce the travel distance of this individual

pointer between letters. In a way, this does allow greater creative freedom. Layouts such as the
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Metropolis (see Appendix for visual of Metropolis keyboard) have a unique design and being

purpose built for single-pointed use it is not only compact but intuitive. It features 3 arms

housing the space key and all the vowels. Unlike traditional keyboards, there is no consideration

for alternating fingers between keystrokes. Instead the letters are close together and this reduces

the inter-key travel distance. By having this singular selection device computers can be used

more effectively to create new unique designs.

Design of touchscreen keyboards goes hand in hand with helping those with disabilities.

Research into the effectiveness of small keyboards meant for smartwatches can also be applied to

this field easily. A study of small form factor QWERTY keyboards ranging from 2 to 4 cm

determined how accurate and fast participants could be (Yi et al., 2017). When typing on a

keyboard of this size, it is only possible to use a single finger or digit. Testing other keyboard

layouts with disabilities in mind for smaller touch screens could be of merit. Small touchscreens

could serve as a faster alternative compared to moving a mouse cursor. Users were able to

achieve 35 WPM average when typing on a 4 cm wide touchscreen keyboard. Speeds like this

are attributed to the word-level techniques used by all modern touchscreen typing. By using the

approximate location of your touches, the system is able to determine the word that you meant to

type. This type of system requires not only a strong vocabulary system but also real-time

processing. Some more advanced systems use sentence-level techniques allowing users to skip

spaces and continue typing. This type of approach requires a very complicated data set to

determine words typed. All touchscreen keyboard approaches have a severe limitation when it

comes to typing a language it was not designed for. This library for determining words is not

always available in all languages. This means that while this type of prediction is powerful it

may only be this way for English. While other versions may not be as well optimized If these
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limitations can be overlooked, using a smartwatch as an input for computers could be a strong

option.

Conclusion and Future Study

There are many approaches to increasing the usability of keyboards. Whether it is a

redesign of the shape, rearrangement of the keys or simply training individuals exhibit better

keyboard posture. Across all research that has been done, there is a clear trend that when these

methods are applied, the user experience is enhanced. The approach generally used is to treat

keyboard related musculoskeletal issues as they arise. There is a not a clear trend towards

preemptively treatment of this issue. There exists a void in keyboard related research where

these treatments are combined. The use a full factorial designed study on the effects of training,

new key layouts, and keyboard design could yield industry changing results. Dvorak has been

shown to not be a cost-effective layout to train individuals on due to the length it takes them

adapt (Sanders as cited in Li et al., 2006). If there exists a high-level interaction between these

different factors it could mean pushing Dvorak or other alternative layouts into a position where

they become cost effective. A study of this scale and breadth has never been undertaken in this

field of ergonomics. There exists a far-reaching impact of such a study with the number of

people that use a keyboard on a daily basis in the world today. The number affected is only

going to increase. Action should not be taken in response to an injury and should instead be a

means of injury prevention.

Those with existing major injuries and disabilities also require a degree of focus. They

are also inconvenienced by being stuck with QWERTY keyboards in many if not all situations.

This problem requires that research be done and from this research a push towards a standard for
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those with disabilities. Any research into keyboards and the betterment of their use must

consider those with disabilities. Designs change as the technology progresses. Computer use by

those with disabilities is a relatively recent advancement in this field. To become complacent in

this field it to do a disservice to those that use these tools on a daily basis to communicate out of

necessity. When you can only operate a single digit, your options are severely limited and those

available should be always under review for improvement.

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References

Fagarasanu, M., Kumar, S., & Narayan, Y. (2005). The training effect on typing on two

Alternative keyboards. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 35(6), 509-516.

doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2004.12.001

Francis, G., & Johnson, E. (2011). Speed-accuracy trade-offs in specialized keyboards.

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 69(7-8), 526-538.

doi:10.1037/e520592012-219

Işeri, A., & Ekşioğlu, M. (2015). Estimation of digraph costs for keyboard layout optimization.

International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 48, 127-138.

doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2015.04.006

Li, Y., Chen, L., & Goonetilleke, R. S. (2006). A heuristic-based approach to optimize keyboard

design for single-finger keying applications. International Journal of Industrial

Ergonomics, 36(8), 695-704. doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2006.04.009

Nakić-Alfirević, T., & Ðurek, M. (2004). The Dvorak Keyboard Layout and Possibilities of its

Regional Adaptation [Scholarly project]. In Faculty of Electrical Engineering and

Computing, University of Zagreb.

Rempel, D., Barr, A., Young, E., & Brafman, D. (2017). The effect of six keyboard designs on

wrist and forearm postures. Applied Ergonomics, 38(3), 293-298.

doi:10.1037/e577672012-023

Swanson, N. G., Galinsky, T. L., Cole, L. L., Pan, C. S., & Sauter, S. L. (1997). The impact of

keyboard design on comfort and productivity in a text-entry task. Applied Ergonomics,

28(1), 9-16. doi:10.1016/s0003-6870(96)00052-x

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Yi, X., Yu, C., Shi, W., & Shi, Y. (2017). Is it too small?: Investigating the performances and

preferences of users when typing on tiny QWERTY keyboards. International Journal of

Human-Computer Studies, 106, 44-62. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.05.001

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Appendix A
Of Those Surveyed, Whether They Were Willing to Learn a Non-Traditional Keyboard or Not

Appendix B
Of those Surveyed, Whether They Been Exposed to Keyboard Ergonomics Instruction or Not
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Appendix D
Of Those Surveyed, Preferred Keyboard Layout

Appendix D
Metropolis Keyboard Picture for Francis et al. (2011)