Do you think the IT industry and IT vendors in particular are addressing these kinds of issues adequately in terms of how they create and market hardware?
I think at the moment short keyboards and their like tend to be more expensive. It is seen as being a luxury when actually it should be seen as being essential. The kind of parallel I used to draw is if that you were a craftsperson 50 years ago you would have a set of tools handmade for you so they fitted your hand and were shaped and angled the way you wanted. These days we are all expected to use bog-standard tools -- using them for eight to 10 hours a day without any thought or whether they are designed for us or how we lay them out or anything. There are some regulations around which should help as anybody using a computer should have their environment risk-assessed but putting that into practice is another thing.
Have you looked into the positive or negative impact of tablet PC devices on RSI?
We have looked at touch screens and that type of thing. I think what we are starting to see in the industry as a whole is that there are more and more modalities you can use to make changes in the computer. You can use touch screens, voice-recognition software, mice, digitising tablets, keyboards, but there is very little research on what might be right for an individual doing a given job.
Is it a case of the more ways you can interact with the machine the better?
Well, I tend to say let's find out what you're using the machine for and let's select devices that will make it easier for you to do your job and more comfortable. I've been working with someone recently who uses a small handheld computer; for writing very short notes and putting in reminders that's fine, but if you were going to do more than that it would be inappropriate. Also if your computer isn't properly tailored to your needs you could end up with a machine that is too slow, so you spend a lot of time with your finger poised on a button waiting for the file to open; so suddenly you are putting a lot of unnecessary load on the muscles of your hand because your computer isn't powerful enough, basically. People often think that ergonomics refers to some piece of hardware but it's actually about the whole task and what hinders you in doing your job.
Do you think software companies are thinking about RSI issues sufficiently when developing new applications?
I have not seen a huge amount of evidence that they do i.e. no. I presume that you're using a Windows-based environment? Every time you close a file you have to track across the screen and locate a very tiny icon with a cross in it, in the top right-hand corner. Imagine the amount of unnecessary movement that causes people everyday. You can do it by clicking other keys -- I know that -- but most people use the mouse and it's an awful lot of unnecessary cursor movement across the screen it seems to me.
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