Recommendations for dealing with RSI at the Lab

Suggestions for individual prevention

• Proper posture
• Take breaks from typing - and stretch during the breaks. Every 5 minutes if necessary; less for prevention and/or if symptoms are not acoute.
• Type lightly
• To position fingers on keys, AVOID REACHING with you fingers. Instead move your arm to position your hand.
• Become familiar with the various problems and symptoms
• Try to avoid mice, esp. mice w/more than 1 button
• Find the proper position for the monitor
• Keep arms and hands warm (also try keeping neck warm since relaxed neck and shoulder muscles won't compress the nerves going through the thoracic outlet)
• Use "vi" instead of "emacs" (i'm only 1/2 joking)
• type lower case
• Get enough sleep!
• One size does not fit all!!! Investigate configurable furniture, keyboards, ETC. (see the rest of this document).

Suggestions for what the lab can do

Short-term:

• Get Lou diBeredinis to review how the workstations are set up for all staff, faculty, RAs and in garden areas. Also have him evaluate lighting - since poor lighting can cause tension in head, neck and shoulders
• Buy a copy of the Pascarelli and Fowler book for each member of the lab (staff and students, plus and extra copy for each group).
• Buy [cheap] electronic timers that beep for everyone in the lab to make them aware of the problem Why external, ie., rather than a software timer? as a visible reminder to those who have RSI and those who don't.
• A supply of ibuprofen in each group's first aid kit. NOTE: this is not so that people will take ibuprofen in order to work, but after-the-fact, to relieve the pain that comes from overworking. (Pain hurts). The danger of taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories is that they mask the symptoms and therefore the typist will do further damage without feeling it. The pain relief is for after typing and not before.
• Posters showing stretching exercises
• Get wireless headset phones or phone rests (whatever works!) on an as needed basis for anyone else who spends a long time on the phone and/or finds phone use painful.

Longer term, greater investment:

• In-house "ATIC" lab....room with all sorts of alternative equipment and adjustable furniture that can be tried out or used to finish up a thesis:
  • Adjustable chairs
  • Adjustable tables
  • Adjustable work surfaces (e.g., Keyboard trays, tables) in all the gardens (some evaluation necessary here)
  • Monitor stands or adjustable-height desks for easy adjustment of monitor height
  • Phone rests Wireless phone headsets
• Lending "library" of such equipment
• Replace generic work gear on and as needed basis, since each person's needs will be different
• Use wider tables so that can get monitors farther away
• Give support staff time away from their work and their desk to:
  • Evaluate equipment in the ATIC room
  • Get trained on prevention and management of RSI, once it appears
• PUBLICIZE THE LAB'S COMMITMENT TO PREVENTION AND ACCOMMODATION. This will prevent people from thinking it's their own problem, and continuing to work without appropriate equipement and habits.
• PUBLICIZE THE CHANNELS BY WHICH STUDENTS AND STAFF CAN OBTAIN THE EQUIPMENT, TYPING HELP AND INFORMATION THEY NEED. This saves time.

More specifics on the equipment room / lending library

• Speech recognition:
  • DragonDictate speech recognizer
  • Thad suggested that someone could get BBN's HARK continuous speech recognizer up to speed, but Sumit was skeptical that it could handle larger vocabularies well
• Keyboard:
  • Datahand, Twiddler, and "Comfort Keys?", Kinesis keyboards (maybe others off the alternative keyboard web site ...can find off http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables)
• Click input:
  • trackballs, trackpoints, alternative pointing devices
• Prosthetics:
  • moving mouse wrist supports
  • moving arm rests (they attach to the work surface but they require a stable surface. therefore keyboards trays are unsuitable).
• Pain:
  • borrowable heating pads in different shapes and sizes (because some heating pads, esp. the moist microwaveable kind are ~$50 - if they don't quite work out it ends up costing a lot to find one that works).
• Adjustable furniture:
  • chairs, work surfaces
• Phone:
  • wireless phone headsets, phone rests