You Asked for It
August/September 2005

Greetings Sharon:

A lady I've done an ergo assessment on is continuing to experience serious problems that I believe I need your opinion on. A supplier has fit her chair, and realigned her keyboard, I've moved her monitor, but she continues to experience tingling and numbness in both her wrists - today she tells me that she is now experiencing the same thing on the left side of her body. (she mouses on right side).

I may be out to lunch on this Sharon, but... can a person's weight have a negative effect with respect to ergonomics?

I ask because this lady is fairly large across the midsection, so much that she cannot comfortably extend her hand to touch or almost touch her computer screen because of her stomach touching the keyboard tray.

Aside: Since she has worked full time before coming to us, I asked her if she did as much keyboarding as she does now, she answered, No, this is the most keyboarding she has ever done.

If I'm off the mark, please, any suggestions you have would be most appreciated, or if I'm not, is there any written info I can provide her with, as I don't have a clue how I would approach the subject for the sake of her health.

Thank you as always for your assistance Sharon.
MS

Response:

Good Morning MS,

Your problem isn't an unusual one, unfortunately. As a person's girth gets larger, it takes more internal rotation of the shoulder (causing rounding and hunching) to reach toward the midline of the body, where the keyboard is located. Upon getting their hands to the alphanumeric portion of the keyboard, they must then significantly ulnar deviate their wrists to put their hands perpendicular to the plane of the keys. I have found that in this body type, a regular split keyboard is not sufficient.

The ideal arm position when keyboarding would actually not involve any internal rotation of the shoulder. Instead, in an ideal situation, the hand would be used in the same plane as the shoulder - as though the arm was hanging at the side of the body and then the elbow simply flexed, with the hands remaining shoulder width apart.

This worker with an enhanced waistline would likely benefit from using a split and separating keyboard such as the ErgoMagic Separated keyboard, available from ergocanada.com (cost listed on their web site at $300; ). I have used a similar keyboard in the past for larger bodies and found it quite effective to control the need to reach around the abdomen.

Please let me know the outcome of a trial of this product with your worker.

st

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