The Company:

Public Affairs

Current DataHand News:

DataHand Systems Asks for Re examination of Ergonomic Policy with the Goal of Meeting the Needs of All Stakeholders, including Workers, Managers, shareholders, Unions, Consumers, Taxpayers, and Political Leader

On July 16 and 17 in Washington, the Department of Labor launched a series of hearings to get public input on ergonomic policy. At these hearings, Don Patterson testified on behalf of DataHand Systems. He has been involved in the development of both the DataHand keyboard and the company from the early beginnings. From the vantage of years of DataHand experience, the need for a bottom up re thinking of the OSHA approach to ergonomic policy is highlighted in the statement. The testimony was intended to propose policy reevaluation in the interest of all groups who have suffered-- more than they might realize--as a result of the long ergonomic impasse. The complete statement made at the hearings is provided by clicking below.

Click Below to Download the July 16, 2001 Testimony on Ergonomic Policy in Adobe pdf format:

July 16, 2001 Testimony on Ergonomic Policy

Click Below to Download the OSHA Ergonomic Demonstration Program Proposal:

DataHand Ergonomic Grant Proposal

This policy proposal amplifies with specifics the general points made in the
testimonial statement. The proposal spells out the details of one essential
element of the proposed approach to ergonomic policy. The program is intended
as a supplement to ergonomic regulations, not a substitute for them. The
statement below summarizes the history and the rationale behind the policy
proposal.

DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard Review: Paul Fatula, ATPM, May, 2001http://www.atpm.com/7.05/datahand.shtml

DataHand Ergonomic Keyboards Feature Article "The Kansas City Star, January 17, 2001http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/business.pat,business/37751008.117,.html.

DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard Featured by TwoMobile.com
Submitted by: on December 26, 200
"The DataHand ergonomic keyboard offers a total of 132 keys (more than even extended flat keyboards) through the use of five key switches clustered around the tips of each of the fingers. With four modes, shifted by the thumbs, hand movement is no longer required to perform keyboard work. Hand support results in the elimination of the major source of musculoskeletal stress in hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, backs, and necks." Read the full article at http://www.twomobile.com/content/10.php

DataHand Ergonomic Keyboards Featured by
December, 2000 --- DataHand Keyboard featured by www.nurses.com.

Read DataHand Ergonomic Keyboards Address New OSHA Requirements -- Press Release November 21, 2000

Read DataHand Systems, Inc. Urges Innovative Leadership To Create Comprehensive Federal Policy with Funding for Remediation -- Press Release August 2000

Read DataHand Letter To Jim Jeffress, OSHA DirectorRead The Better Way Meets Resistance to Change

Read Business Online: Daily Briefing
BW Online Daily Briefing Asssitive Technology, December 1999

Public Statements of DataHand Systems, Inc.

Prizes and Awards

Downloadable Photos

DataHand Ergonomic Keyboards Address New OSHA Requirement
Phoenix, Arizona (November 21, 2000) DataHand Systems, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of ergonomic keyboards, is ramping up marketing efforts in light of new OSHA ergonomic regulation announced last week.

"The recent announcement will help highlight a problem. It also allows us the opportunity to present a solution," said Dennis Monroe DataHand Vice President of Operations. "DataHand's patented products have been proven to successfully reduce injury, and in fact, increase productivity. "

Founded in 1995, DataHand offers a unique solution enabling keyboard users to reduce health problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress injuries resulting from traditional keyboards. The DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard design features enable low operating forces, greatly reduced finger travel, and improved ergonomic hand support when compared with any other available keyboard and mouse alternatives.

Recently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration released the Final Ergonomics Program Standard in an effort to reduce the number and severity of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) caused by workplace exposure to repetitive motions, force, awkward postures, contact stress and vibration. The new rules cover 6 million companies and require U.S. businesses to take specific action to limit exposure to risk factors that cause MSD injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress disorders.

"There are three causes of problems for people who use keyboards: motion, force and position," continued Monroe. "DataHand keyboards require one-third the force of regular keyboards, and one-eighth the work to operate one of our keys compared to normal keyboards. Additionally, the palm rest and the ability to make adjustments to the unit allow the user to find a comfortable position. We have many customers who will verify the DataHand keyboard allow long hours of comfortable typing."

The DataHand keyboard essentially simulates two hands, with an elevated area for the user's palm, four depressions for the fingers and a trough for the thumb. Each finger can operate five switches and the thumbs can toggle switches in all directions. To limit training time, the keyboard layout matches the directions fingers move on a normal keyboard.

DataHand® Systems, Inc. is a privately held company head quartered in Phoenix, Arizona. After five years of research, DataHand has recently begun marketing the Ergonomic Keyboard. The Company offers a basic unit, a programmable unit and a 10-key data entry unit. For more information including a peer reviewed study and user testimonials, call (602) 233-6000 or visit the web site at www.datahand.com.


[Back To Top]

Press ReleasAugust, 2000:

DataHand Systems, Inc. Urges Innovative Leadership To Create Comprehensive Federal Policy with Funding for Remediation to Face Worker Injury, Productivity Loss, ∓ Political Gridlock over Repetitive Stress Injury.

"The DataHand® experience proves American ingenuity can develop better answers to the problems of work-related musculoskeletal injury," states Don Patterson, a spokesman for DataHand Systems, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona, developers and marketers of a unique computer keyboard. "If one small company can offer valuable innovation to address repetitive stress injury (RSI), others can be encouraged to do similarly," he suggests.

Patterson came to Washington this week to encourage the President and Congressional leaders to provide innovative leadership to end the political gridlock over OSHA ergonomic rules. "Repetitive stress injury is a unique workplace affliction requiring more than regulatory rules," he says.

"The Congress and the Administration need to work together to fix the political and physical agony blocking effective RSI policy for almost a decade," Patterson argues. Multiplying OSHA's annual cost estimates, he places the decade-long cost in lost productivity and medical costs as high as a half trillion dollars. "If the government would pay for remediation, the investment could be quickly paid back in tax revenues," he states. "Forcing responsibility onto recalcitrant, fearful companies only prolongs the agony."

"Companies and other employers need to reduce injury, restore the productivity of pain afflicted workers, reduce health and insurance costs, improve operational efficiency, and restore worker morale," Patterson believes, "but before executive decision makers can act, the policy gridlock must be ended. Continuing fear of blame, legal liability, and high remedial costs cannot be overcome without government leadership and assistance."

"Even if OSHA ergonomic rules are issued soon, the problem will not necessarily be resolved," Patterson clarifies. "The regulations could be blocked in the courts for years if industry threats are executed."

"At-risk workers, their employers, and the best interests of a fully productive economy all need comprehensive policy with significant federal funding," Patterson proposes. "Because so many workers have suffered in silence out of fear of job loss or career derailment, the productivity costs and the other economic costs of delay and deferral have been hidden or accepted as normal and inescapable," he believes.

In a letter to the Congress and the Clinton Administration, DataHand Systems responds to OSHA Director Charles Jeffress's 1999 desire to share good answers capable of reducing repetitive motion injury among keyboard workers and others. "Americans don't sweep problems under the rug," Patterson says, "difficulties are addressed with ingenuity and vision, not fear and deferral, but Jeffress's offer has not been enough to end the gridlock."

"Government officials in both political parties, industry executives, workers, union representatives, insurers, health care providers, medical leaders, professional associations, and lobbying organizations must work together, but Government officials hold the key to breaking the logjam and getting help to both workers and their employers," Patterson concludes. "Stress-related musculoskeletal injury is a costly, painful, and unique disability deserving attention similar to the attention accorded people with other types of disability. Only with government help can the causation controversy, the diagnostic difficulties, and the liability fears be overcome."

"Many stress disabled workers with different kinds of affliction can be helped to become fully productive, valuably contributing citizens, not dependent on public disability programs," Patterson suggests. "For computer workers, a big step is taken when problems associated with the 130 year-old flat keyboard are finally recognized. This antique tool left over from the age of mechanical typewriters is not capable of ending the physical pain."

"Workers and employers are encumbered by long-standing cultural habits, traditions, and the inability to envision better ways to perform work," Patterson states. "To get to the bottom of the problem, visionary leadership must replace adversarial politics."

Innovative companies can do an important job, but government leaders and others need to do their part, too." Patterson continues. "The DataHand keyboard has helped many workers, and more could be helped if companies were not afraid they might concomitantly acknowledge their liability for prior worker injury -or incur medically erroneous, unjustified, or unhelpful costs," he reports. "Under advice of counsel, companies fear any move made could bring legal difficulties."

"The DataHand® keyboard brings benefit to injured workers by allowing the fingers and thumbs to perform keyboard work without hand, wrist, or arm movement," Patterson says. "Typing is accomplished through small, less forceful, tactilely differentiated finger movement," he explains.

All the keys on a DataHand keyboard are clustered closely around the tips of the fingers. Patterson describes "a totally different, gentle, less tiring keyboard touch." He says previous flat keyboard speeds can be matched or exceeded within thirty days by most new learners: "As with any new, improved technology, learning time is required."

"Those who have never typed before on any keyboard learn the DataHand keyboard more quickly than similar beginners on the traditional keyboard," Patterson reports. "Each key has a distinctive feel and movement direction -providing tactile learning reinforcement." He contrasts the DataHand design with the traditional keyboard where all the keys feel the same and are activated by the same stressful, repetitive, downward, pecking motion.

The forces necessary to activate the keys on the DataHand keyboard are less than half of the 48 grams found by medical researchers to be the likely threshold of injury, Patterson explains. DataHand key activation forces are 18-22 grams, compared to 55-100 grams on the standard flat keyboard. He says many flat keyboard workers exert stress-producing forces 4-7 times greater than necessary. This "hammering" causes injury. "No similar tendency to apply excessive force is observed among DataHand workers," Patterson emphasizes.

A peer reviewed study of DataHand user experience performed by the Harrington Arthritis Research Center is cited by Patterson to show subsidence of pain and swelling after injured workers begin performing their work on the DataHand ergonomic keyboard. "Many workers, after facing the prospect of career disruption and changing over to the DataHand keyboard, have continued to work every day with no time off for rest and rehabilitation," Patterson states.

"The DataHand experience directly addresses a 1997 report released by the National Institute on Safety and Health (NIOSH) discrediting the capability of alternative keyboards to reduce injury and discomfort," Patterson reports. The DataHand® keyboard was not among the keyboards studied by the NIOSH researchers, according to Patterson, "But customer interest in all alternative keyboards was damaged."

The NIOSH study looked only at keyboards modestly modifying the standard flat keyboard, Patterson reports. "Modest improvement of a fundamentally inadequate, antique concept cannot fix either the injury or the impaired productivity," Patterson states. "The answer is a better keyboard concept capable of addressing injury causes and stresslessly improving speed."

A University of Arizona study showing a 96.8% level of DataHand user satisfaction is cited by Patterson along with the earlier Harrington study. Harrington findings show an average 75% pain reduction within four months after injured workers started to use the DataHand keyboard. The full text of both studies and others are available on the DataHand Systems website. DataHand Systems welcomes future investigations by highly qualified medical researchers, Patterson affirms. Such studies need governmental funding and validated methodology to be considered fully objective and credible, he says.

Long-term medical studies by qualified academic researchers can provide epidemiologically significant data about the causes of worker injury as well as further clarification of the DataHand advantage, Patterson anticipates. "Companies in several industries have conducted their own DataHand tests. The results show more medical data is not needed before workers and companies can be given the benefit of a significantly better idea," he says. "A less stressful, more comfortable keyboard design does not need to be treated diffidently ∓ divide; as if it were a potentially dangerous new drug."

"Meta-analysis of several productivity studies at several independent corporate work sites document an average productivity increase of 16% (plus or minus 9% with a confidence level of 95%) over a thirty-day test period," Patterson attests. "Productivity improvement as low as 7% can repay the capital investment (purchase cost of a DataHand keyboard plus learning time and training costs) within one year ∓ divide;even with relatively low wage workers," he reports.

In addition, Patterson reports Workers' Compensation savings of approximately $100,000 annually in a typical workplace of 300 computer workers ∓ divide; where twenty-five DataHand keyboards address the needs of workers previously injured while working on the traditional flat keyboard. If a larger portion of workers are injured, the savings can be greater, he says. Doctors have prescribed the DataHand ergonomic keyboard for suffering workers, according to Patterson, "but, it is not a medical device, and no medical claims are made. Injury is addressed through innovative, stress-reducing keyboard design, he concludes. "All nine identified sources of musculoskeletal stress long associated with flat keyboard work are addressed."

For more detailed information, call Lynn Anderson at 800-875-7171;
e-mail: landerson@datahand.com.

[Back To Top]

The Better Way meets Resistance to change

The DataHand minimum motion keyboard presents an interesting case study of new technology adoption. This alternative to the traditional flat keyboard was developed initially to address productivity. Its effectiveness in addressing the ergonomic hazards inherent in the traditional keyboard was secondary. It has been found that DataHand has allowed many people disabled with wrist injuries to return to work. Where the promise of greater productivity fails to motivate, pain will. According to proponents, DataHand addresses all the stresses associated with the flat keyboard while other alternative keyboards are likely to address only 10% or so. Here are a few quotes from DataHand's 1999 user testimonial document. 

"If aliens came to earth after humans were extinct and found a traditional, flat keyboard, they'd imagine we had thirteen fingers laid out in a straight line, like piano keys."

Datahand backer Don Patterson's words of encouragement to Datahand prospects, users and also, no doubt, investors: "Introducing an innovative, new paradigm to the world is never easy or fast even when the concept being replaced is entirely deficient. Paradigm change is always hard for people. Perseverance in the face of skepticism and uncertainty is a necessity. Long-standing habits of an entire culture are not relinquished any more quickly than the harmful substance dependencies afflicting individual citizens."

DataHand Minimum Motion Keyboard in Action (Courtesy of DataHand Systems, Inc., Phoenix, AZ USA.) 

Regarding resistance to change:
"The flat keyboard is a paradigm from another century intended to meet the work requirements of mechanical typewriters. Workers had to be slowed down to avoid the clash and snarling of the mechanism. Neither the productivity shortcomings nor ergonomic limitations can be fixed until the paradigm is changed.... "Human limitations have deferred the acceptance of many innovative, forward looking ideas.... The telephone floundered for a time under the perception that it was no more than an interesting novelty without practical application. Acceptance of steamships was slowed while the makers of sailing ships tried every conceivable means to improve the efficiency of their sail designs and deployment. The zipper, invented at the turn of the last century, was not widely accepted until almost fifty years later when the government brought it to the attention of many people by using it on military clothing."

[Back To Top]

"Change, it seems, often has to be literally forced onto people. A student once said to his professor, who happened to be Howard Aiken, inventor of the Mark I computer at Harvard, that he was afraid someone might steal his (the student's) ideas. Aiken replied, 'Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.'"

* Slater, Robert, Portraits in Silicon, MIT Press, 1987

BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING
BW ONLINE DAILY BRIEFING ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOG by John Williams

December 29, 1999 A Look at Some of 2000's Most Promising Products

Computer-screen magnifiers that speak, better keyboard designs, a program that fills out forms for you online, and more As we close out the 20th century and enter the 21st, there's new hope for people with disabilities. That hope is fueled by an explosion in assistive technology. Advances in new products and services will continue to put disabled people on the same footing as able-bodied people. More jobs will be available, more educational opportunities, and more travel options. Those who are blind, deaf, or unable to speak will have the means to access and collect information they need in the Information Age. We'll see the emergence of a bionic eye, advances in prosthetics, in repairing spinal-cord injuries, in wheelchairs and vans, and in communications technology, especially with regard to Internet access. Here are a few of the new products and services coming out in 2000 that bear watching: ... A new ergonomic keyboard design: DataHand Systems is offering new improvements in its DataHand, an ergonomic keyboard that supports the hands in such a way that all the typing is done by the fingers alone. While other keyboards require the fingers and hands to move to find the keys, the DataHand places all keys within a short reach of the fingertips. Doctors studying repetitive stress syndrome consider DataHand to be one of the best designs on the market. I have carpal tunnel syndrome, and I can vouch for that. But DataHand has other applications as well. You don't have to see the keys to operate it, which makes it a wonderful tool for the blind. In fact, the typing speed record on a DataHand keyboard is held by a blind operator, who learned the concept and achieved 90 words per minute in less than an hour. Sighted operators experienced on flat keyboards often need up to a month to get up to speed on the DataHand keyboard. It takes time to adapt to its different, lighter touch and feel. But in the end, the effort is worth it. For information visit datahand.com.

The use of the word DataHand as a noun, as is done in press reports, is not approved or condoned by DataHand Systems, Inc., which reserves all rights. The word DataHand should be correctly used as an adjective.

[Back To Top]

Public Statements of DataHand Systems, Inc.

The DataHand Difference The DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard Versus Other Alternative Computer Keyboards Based Closely on the Ergonomically- Challenged Flat Keyboard Paradigm A Response by DataHand Systems, Inc. to Research, Pamphlets, and Press Reports Suggesting the Limited Ability of Alternative Keyboards to Offer Aid and Benefit to Injured Keyboard Workers

In 1997, federal worker safety and health authorities published studies and pamphlets stating alternative keyboards could help injured keyboard workers only modestly. This finding may have pertained to certain keyboard products studied by the agency, but the findings could not apply to products not examined. The DataHand ergonomic keyboard was not included in the group of keyboards studied by the federal investigators. The federal study looked only at keyboard designs similar in concept to the basic, old fashioned keyboard layout. Yet, keyboard-related repetitive motion pain and injury relates closely to the ergonomic inadequacies of the flat keyboard and its derivative designs. While flat keyboard-based alternative keyboard designs are intended to ameliorate some of the ergonomic inadequacies of the flat keyboard paradigm, most of the ergonomic issues cannot be addressed without abandoning the flat keyboard paradigm. To solve more than a modest minimum portion of the problem, an entirely new and different keyboard concept is required. The DataHand ergonomic keyboard offers such a concept. Even though the DataHand ergonomic keyboard was designed to enhance the productivity of computer workers, it also addresses all of the ergonomic issues not understood when the flat keyboard was invented over one hundred and thirty years ago. The flat keyboard was designed to meet the needs of nineteenth century workers using mechanical typewriters. It was as good as most of the mechanical concepts proposed at the time, but it is a serious anachronism in The Information Age. New technology has made a better idea possible. Keyboard workers seeking comfort, relief from musculoskeletal stress, and greater productivity can review the views of DataHand users posted on the DataHand website at www.datahand.com. They are also encouraged to order a DataHand keyboard, so they can decide about its benefits for themselves. We, at DataHand Systems, believe everyone will soon agree: using any other keyboard is actually a false economy for workers who spend large amounts of time working at a computer. Workers who value their musculoskeletal health, their physical safety from the pain of repetitive motion injury, and their productivity will want something better -now that they know a better answer is available. A variety of studies examining both the ergonomic and the productivity advantages of the DataHand keyboard are available. For example, University of Arizona researchers interviewed a sample of DataHand purchasers finding 96.8% satisfied. Only one user was dissatisfied. 84% were either extremely satisfied or very satisfied, and 84% cited medical reasons for their purchase. Many said their careers were saved as a result of the superior ergonomic qualities of the DataHand keyboard. DataHand Systems, Inc. desires to cooperate with all thorough, medically credible research conducted by well-credentialed, independent research institutions seeking to compare worker experience on the DataHand keyboard with the performance, comfort, and injury profile of flat keyboard workers -and workers using its more recent somewhat ergonomic variations. Such studies, if well designed, can determine injury causation and affirm the benefits of using the DataHand ergonomic keyboard. They can document the clear difference between the DataHand keyboard and other keyboards. DataHand Systems is dedicated to helping keyboard workers discover a better way to perform keyboard work comfortably, safely and productively. Any user who is not 100% satisfied is assisted to return his or her DataHand keyboard. A thirty day trial is offered to all purchasers. For more information, customer support, a discussion of training options, or copies of research reports covering both ergonomic and productivity benefits and results of DataHand use, please call 800-875-7171.

[Back To Top]

Traveling The Market Path from Ergonomic Infancy to Maturity, December, 1999
When the ergonomic keyboard market was in its infancy it was uncertain and oblivious; it chose products and ergonomic answers whimsically without sophistication. It gurgled and wiggled and became easily distracted by one new gimmick after another. When the market matured enough to develop juvenile tastes, it chased after slick packaging and widely advertised, massively distributed answers with prominent names. In youth everyone likes to associate themselves with prestigious logos. Prominent names bolster the ego against the natural insecurities of youth. As the ergonomic market began to mature, it travelled over a trail of inadequate ideas and broken hopes -on the pathway to knowledge. Many products had been tried without success or with only partial success. Along the way, wisdom was won through long, painful experience. With wisdom came discriminating judgment about unusual new ideas. Such innovation seemed daunting during the market's infancy, and it lacked the established corporate power needed to impress the juvenile market. As the market matured into adulthood, it began to demonstrate the maturity to discriminate between concepts capable of making a real difference and those only marginally helpful or able to provide no help at all. Among other things, the market learned stretching and frequent work breaks were only palliative in the face of the larger problem of repetitive motion injury. Better technological answers were increasingly demanded by both workers and employers. Slowly, the market started to understand real value, robust return on wise investment, and the fair price to pay for recognized benefits. The infant market and the juvenile market had not been mature or discerning enough to comprehend these things. In adulthood, the market grew to understand the true sources of the ergonomic problem. It began to see through inadequate answers from the mechanical era of the previous century. Buyers were no longer so easily led astray by approaches incapable of making a real difference. With maturity, the ergonomic market started to perceive the significance of a new and innovative paradigm -a product radically different from any other ever seen before, and designed explicitly to address all the many ergonomic design issues afflicting the flat keyboard and its derivatives. As dissatisfaction with old answers grew, the market became more free to embrace a computer keyboard capable of providing not only comfort and reduced risk of injury, but also greater productivity. It offered a whole new, less stressful, less fatiguing vision of keyboard work. It was the dawn of a whole new day (the launch of a whole new era for keyboard workers ) just in time to herald the birth of a new, hopefully more discerning, more productive, more visionary century. These capacities will be needed.

[Back To Top]

Statement to the Subcommittee on Technology of the Committee on Science, U. S. House of Representatives, Hearing on Assistive Technologies for Persons with Disabilities, 4 August 1998 by Don Patterson, DataHand Systems, Inc.
 
As one of the three directors who launched the company which has become DataHand Systems, Inc., I have ten years of experience developing the DataHand keyboard system -even though I am not involved with the company's operational management. When I first learned about the DataHand concept from an article in the Wall Street Journal, patent applications had been filed and prototypes developed, but much work was needed to refine the design into a market ready product. DataHand Systems is still a small company, but over the last several years the DataHand product has proven itself in the market -especially among stress injured workers. Because of the seriousness of the stress injury problem, this group of afflicted workers became the initial focus of the company's marketing plan. More and more satisfied customers are spreading the word about the success of their experience with the DataHand keyboard. Some individuals credit the DataHand system with saving their careers. Many DataHand customers are highly paid computer programmers, greatly valued by their companies. Some of this group were on the verge of forced retirement before they started to do their work on a DataHand keyboard. Some had tried voice entry systems and other keyboard concepts to relieve their stress before they discovered DataHand Systems. Even in the face of improving and well-financed alternatives, the DataHand keyboard has remained the keyboard of choice for many stress injured workers. To the company's knowledge, no sale has ever been lost to any competitor. Company research shows that customers either stay with their existing keyboard or they purchase a DataHand product. The company does not feel it has any competitors capable of delivering similar benefits. Most other alternative keyboard products are derived from and are similar to the basic flat QWERTY keyboard which was designed over one hundred and twenty years ago to prevent workers from going so fast they would cause the mechanical typewriter keys to clash. The flat, QWERTY keyboard design was intended, from the start to be awkward and inefficient. In many cases, DataHand operators, injured from previous work on a traditional keyboard, watch their pain and swelling go away over a period of months after they change over to the DataHand system. This can happen without workers taking any time off from work to allow the previously induced trauma to subside. Nevertheless, the DataHand keyboard is not a medical device and the company makes no medical claims on its behalf. The repetitive stress injury issue reached the public consciousness during the early nineties after the DataHand keyboard was well advanced along its developmental path. Although designed to improve productivity, the DataHand concept has proven ideally suited to bring valuable benefit to stress injured keyboard users.By the time the DataHand product was ready to enter the market, the repetitive stress injury issue had grown into a $50 billion annual national problem. In response, doctors have prescribed the DataHand keyboard for their injured patients; DataHand devices have been used to close workman's compensation claims as well as to rescue many workers from pain-filled workdays. Last fall, for one example among many, the Health Section of the Washington Post carried an article about repetitive stress injury quoting a Baltimore physician, who reported his experience with the DataHand keyboard and other products over the past several years. He told of having found no other keyboard device apart from the DataHand keyboard which had proved able to help his patients gain relief from their repetitive strain injuries. Many, many compelling user experiences could be cited if time and space permitted. Another example of note is the case of SaraLee/Hanes in North Carolina where fifteen DataHand devices saved the company $100,000 in Workman's Compensation claims, according to public statements made by company officials. A press release documenting this case is attached. A recent study of a random sample of DataHand users conducted by the University of Arizona is also attached to provide additional information about user response. An earlier study by the Harrington Arthritis Center is also available. The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) commissioned their own study of DataHand ergonomics, but that study has not yet been made public by the USPS. The company has been told only that the findings are favorable. More information about the DataHand keyboard system can be accessed through the company's website at www.datahand.com. 7-9000 hits per week are being logged over recent weeks at this website. To provide more specifics on the views and ergonomic experience of postal workers a copy of an article from the Government Computer News is attached. The Phoenix Post Office was the first major installation site of DataHand devices in a highly stressful, high pressure work environment. In spite of its record of success, acceptance of the DataHand concept has been retarded, to some degree, by the device's unusual appearance. Unlike any keyboard people have ever seen before, the DataHand concept can be initially intimidating to some people. When they first sit down to begin work, people cannot imagine how they would ever learn to accomplish work on such an unfamiliar keyboard. It takes some minutes of adjustment before people begin to get the idea and understand the required touch and pattern of finger movement. Even though the DataHand key layout is based on the familiar QWERTY arrangement of the keys, four finger movements do have to be relearned. These correspond to the four diagonal movements of the index fingers on the flat keyboard. These four movements are accomplished on the DataHand system through lateral movement of the second and third finger on each hand. These four finger movements are relatively quick and easy to learn. Most operators achieve functional speed on the DataHand device within 15-30 hours of work. This is the normal training range. Diligent, full-time users, who are not impaired by injury, usually achieve or exceed their flat keyboard performance within 30 days or 3 million keystrokes. Dvorak and custom key layouts can be accommodated for the benefit of keyboard users with these special needs. A ten-key version of DataHand is available for those whose work requires only numeric entry. Customized numeric DataHand devices are used for sorting of mail by zip code. While many DataHand customers use the IBM-PC interface, other platforms are supported. As is the case with the U.S. Postal Service mail sorting equipment, a variety of specialized interface protocols has been offered. Numbers and functions are typed on the home row with the DataHand system by means of thumb activated mode shift. This approach makes the DataHand design user friendly, efficient, and readily touch typeable without the long finger reaches and hand movements required of flat keyboard users. The DataHand design is beneficial to stress injured workers, because the palm of the hand is supported, and the keys are activated with 80% less movement and 80% less force than is required on the flat keyboard (and its ergonomically reconfigured derivatives). Accordingly, the stress of performing keyboard work is vastly reduced for workers on the DataHand keyboard. Because the amount of finger movement is so much less and because the "pounding" of the keys is not necessary, fatigue is reduced, and people find they accomplish a great deal of work without realizing how much is being achieved with very little work. All of the standard functions (shift, shift lock, tab, return, delete, control, option/alt, command, and space) are placed within short, easy reach of the thumbs. The thumb is the "most intelligent" of the five fingers, so it is given more work to do under the DataHand system. At first, some users find this scheme complex, but as they become accustomed to the idea, the logic of the concept becomes apparent. One of the major factors retarding the acceptance of the DataHand keyboard in the stress injured marketplace has been the lack of national ergonomic standards and/or a policy which addresses potentially overburdening liability costs. Companies have been extremely shy about acknowledging stress problems among their workers, lest they be forced to take costly steps prematurely on behalf of many workers. While many companies officials have waited for the situation to become clarified by court action or other developments, workers have suffered, sometimes in silence. Many workers have been timid about admitting their stress related pain for fear of derailing their careers. As a result, keyboard related stress is not as visible or as quickly managed as it would be if corporate and personal concerns in the absence of clear national leadership were not skewing the issue. In this climate, DataHand Systems often has not won larger corporate orders for DataHand keyboards until it has demonstrated improved worker productivity to go along with greater operator comfort and relief from repetitive stress. Although word of mouth communication has been a great benefit, people need time to become convinced that a strange new keyboard device can really help them. Each work environment is a little bit different from the next, so companies have needed their own experience with the DataHand keyboard before they become convinced of the benefits. Normally, the capability of DataHand is established by initiating a product test involving company workers in their actual work context. Ten or more workers are trained over four or five days; then their DataHand work results are monitored over several weeks. If necessary a learning curve projection is made to determine the additional amount of productivity workers are likely to gain over successive weeks of continued work. Where possible test results are compared to the initial performance results the worker achieved when they were learning to perform their job on the flat keyboard. So far, the DataHand results have always proved favorable in these comparisons. Productivity demonstrations have been advanced at a variety of companies in several industries. High emphasis is placed on support and making sure each company is satisfied with the results achieved. Typically, a productivity improvement of less than ten percent is enough to pay the capital cost of DataHand keyboards plus the training costs in less than a year. In each case the internal rate of return is calculated using the company's own labor cost data together with average worker hours of keyboard work per day. Productivity improvements have been significant enough to show substantial economic benefit to the bottom line of the client companies∓divide;quite apart from the savings on medical cost and lost worktime resulting from stress injury, but the precise numbers achieved in the testing are proprietary to the client companies, The company welcomes the opportunity to set up demonstration tests with any company, government entity, or institution where substantial amounts of data entry work are performed. In some companies, stress injury is a big issue, while in others productivity is a bigger concern. Sometimes worker comfort apart from high rates of repetitive stress injury is considered important. Workers in some companies consider the DataHand opportunity to be a significant job benefit. This can be important to a company in a highly competitive labor market. Where stress is an issue, the financial benefits of the DataHand choice are larger than they are where productivity is the only concern∓divide;although typically, where stress injured workers are involved, some months are needed to bring workers back to full previous productivity before they can go on to improved performance. Concerns vary from company to company depending on the intensity of keyboard work, the number of hours of keyboard work each worker must perform per day, and other ergonomic issues such as work break policy, workstation design, chair choice, and etc. The DataHand purchase decision is normally weighed against the average cost of a stress injury case. Industry research has found this cost to be in the range of $30,000 including both medical costs and lost work time. DataHand Systems is also working to address the needs of other workers with disability, such as the blind and the muscularly impaired. For example, test demonstration plans involving blind workers and others are currently pending at the General Services Administration. A DataHand accessory providing auditory support for blind workers has passed the prototype stage of development. As soon as the software portion of the work is completed, testing will begin with blind workers. Thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony about the work of DataHand Systems, Inc. to help overcome the distressing effects of disability. We believe we can help many, many workers remain productive and pain free. As workers at the Rochester, N.Y. Post Office argued powerfully by way of block lettered T-shirts on informal dress days before DataHand keyboards were installed at their workstations, "Work should not hurt."

[Back To Top]

Manufacturers' Product Liability:
An Overview for the Keyboard Industry by Dale J. Retter, J.D.

The theory and rationale behind product liability are not cohesively stated in the law. No unified body of product liability law has ever been assembled from case law and the statutes of the many states. Inconsistent and contradictory statutes have led to a fragmented body of case law that deals with only portions of the overall issue. Because of this confusing situation, plaintiffs and defendants both concentrate on the most extreme arguments and precedents without concern for overall "reasonableness." The following argument represents an attempt to develop an equitable synthesis of all the fragments of product liability case law and statute. The intent is to develop a doctrine, supported by existing legal precedent, that falls within the mainstream of judicial opinion. Seven different tests for manufacturers' liability are explained. Some arguments and examples follow the description of the tests.

[Back To Top]

Recent DataHand Product Reviews:
Newmedia.com Technology Review June 2000
Head Shop: DataHand Keyboard
By Charles Rubin

If you have keyboard-related repetitive strain injuries in your shoulders, arms, and hands like I do, doctors and other therapists have probably told you to spend less time at the keyboard. Unfortunately, that's not so easy to do when your livelihood depends on a computer. Having tried many other keyboards and voice recognition without success, I was intrigued by the DataHand Professional II keyboard from DataHand Systems (www.datahand.com) ($1295). $1295 is a lot to pay for a keyboard (there's also a less programmable DataHand unit for $995), but this keyboard has a truly unique design that drastically reduces the amount of movement your hands have to make while using a computer, and I hoped that it might solve some of the RSI problems that other keyboards couldn't help. Five keys per finger

Like the Interfaces Keyboard from Cramer (see Head Shop review, 3/17/00), the DataHand is two separate units containing left and right portions of a typical flat keyboard. But unlike the Cramer product (a flat keyboard layout divided in half), the DataHand keyboard positions five keys around each finger. There's a circular well for each finger and an elongated well for each thumb, with keys located underneath and around the sides of each digit. The palms of your hands rest on contoured rubber pads (which are available in two sizes), and your fingers and thumbs fall naturally into each key well. You can adjust the four finger wells for each hand in any direction. The keyboard units come mounted to a lapboard so you can work with them in your lap, or you can detach the units and put them on a keyboard tray. I found that with the keyboard properly adjusted and in my lap, my hands, forearms, elbows, and shoulders were completely at rest-I just wiggled my fingers and thumbs independently to hit various keys without raising my palms off of the rubber pads. To enter text, you move your fingers pretty much the same ways as you would move them on a flat keyboard to hit different keys, although a few keys aren't in their traditional places. For example, you press your right index finger down to hit the J key, and you move the same finger up to press the U key, down to type an M, and left to type an H, but moving the same finger to the right types an apostrophe rather than a K. DataHand includes templates you can tape to your monitor to remind you of key locations. In addition, the Professional II keyboard is completely programmable, so you can reassign key locations you don't like or create macros for other key sequences or commands. Once I was set up and working, my fingers moved far less than they do on a flat keyboard because the keys are closer. Each finger moves only a few millimeters to press any key. This layout almost completely eliminates the normal stretching your fingers do when you want to hit keys that aren't on the "home row" of a flat keyboard. (DataHand claims that its layout reduces finger travel about 80%.) The downside of having keys closer is that I hit a lot of keys by accident, especially at first. But as I used the keyboard (and reassigned a couple of keys that caused particular problems), I created fewer errors. Triple duty

This keyboard has a total of 100 keys, far fewer than the number on a typical flat keyboard. To make up for the deficiency, the keyboard has four different modes: Normal (alphabet and common symbols like commas and periods); Numbers and Symbols (numbers and the shifted keys above them, plus some others); Ten-Key/Programming (creates a 10-key layout under the right hand and allows you to reprogram any key); and Mouse/Function (for mouse movement, function, and navigation keys). This multi-function setup was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. For the first week or so, I frequently went into Mouse mode without noticing by hitting the mode key accidentally. There are indicator lights that show which mode you're in, but if you type as fast as I do you can hit a bunch of keys in the wrong mode before you notice the effect on your screen. Eventually, I reprogrammed the mouse mode key, moving it to my other hand. Since your hands are never intended to leave this keyboard, the mouse is another challenge. To move the mouse, you activate Mouse mode and then move your index fingers left, right, up, or down to move the pointer on the screen-right finger moves the pointer slowly, left moves it faster, and doing both at once moves it even faster. You press down on one of your index fingers to click or double-click, and you can adjust the mouse speed. I gradually got used to the mouse controls, but I also found myself scouring program Help files for additional keyboard shortcuts that would keep me out of mouse mode more of the time. To their credit, the DataHand people are very realistic about the learning curve for their product. Their literature states that for most people, it takes from two weeks to a month of daily use to get back to the typing speed they achieved on a flat keyboard, but after that, the speed actually increases. An included training guide offers drills you can use to learn the key layouts in each mode, but I found that simply trying to do normal work was the best way to learn. $1295 is a lot of money for a keyboard, even with a 30-day, 90% refund return policy. But this keyboard is the only one I have tried that has reduced my typing strain enough to give me a real break without cutting back on my workload. This keyboard allows me to continue working while finally taking my doctors' advice to type less. And that's worth plenty.

[Back To Top]

ErgoSciences Newsletter Review:

The Datahand Professional II Keyboard System is potentially the most biologically beneficial alternative keyboard available today. It incorporates a completely new keypad layout, that is known to reduce repetitive motions by up to eighty percent. Finger extensions and impacts are reduced by over ninety percent when compared to using a flat keyboard and mouse. Each hand support has four finger wells and a thumb well. The finger wells contain low force actuation magnetic switches in which the fingers can move in five directions: front, back, left, right and down. After the training period, an individual using their new typing techniques can quickly regain their average speed. In many instances the user may actually type up to thirty percent faster than they were able to on their old flat keyboard. Accompanying these benefits are a significant reduction in pain and discomfort. The Datahand System even has two integrated mouse modules! Although the Datahand Keyboard System is the most expensive of the alternative keyboards, it may offer the most long term biological benefits for the user. Designed to work in IBM environments, it can also be used with Macs and Sun workstations with an optional interface box. Available for $995.00, Personal Edition, $1295.00, Professional II, and $1195.00, DataProof 10-Key.

Reviewed in ErgoSciences, January 2000 Newsletter

[Back To Top]

InformationWeek Magazine Review:
July 27, 1997
A Few Ounces of Prevention
By Edward Cone

Would you spend $1600 for a keyboard? Tim Browder has, and he says it's worth every penny. "If you have a person who's been with you for 10 years, and you can keep that asset from going out the door, it's a value," says Browder, director of customer services at Sara Lee Direct, the Rural Hall, N.C., phone-order apparel business of Sara Lee Corp. Browder estimates that the 15 keyboards he bought from DataHand Systems in Phoenix save Sara Lee more than $100,000 a year in disability costs by keeping workers who suffer from repetitive strain injury on the job. The DataHand keyboard, like some other ergonomic data-entry devices, consists of two unattached pads. Rather than a conventional array of keys, the keyboard has touch-sensitive receptacles, each of which houses five different commands. The device even looks cool enough to have been featured in Contact, the new summer science fiction movie starring Jodie Foster. Using the DataHand keyboard is a novel experience. Commands are actuated by touching one of the sides or the bottom of the finger wells, using no more force than is required to press an electric elevator button. Complex commands can be programmed so that a single flick of the finger can be used to enter frequently used chunks of data. "It seems very intimidating at first," says Browder. "But after two weeks of training and two on the job, you're back where you were." The DataHand Keyboard is used mostly by already-injured workers at organizations including Citibank, PepsiCo, and the U.S. Postal Service. But the keyboards could become more affordable under a production deal between DataHand and keyboard mass-producer Keytronics Corp. Says DataHand president Paul Reichert, "We're moving closer to the mass market."

[Back To Top]

Recent DataHand Letters:
 
4 April 2000 Letters to the Editor
Home Office Computing
156 West 56th Street
New York, New York 10019
e-mail: lettershoc@curtco.com
To The Editor:

Having been gratified, pleased, and very pleasantly surprised back in 1994 when Home Office Computing selected the DataHand ergonomic keyboard as the computer keyboard of choice for the model home office, I was disappointed this year when the April issue did not include the DataHand keyboard in the survey of ergonomic keyboards and mice. The devices included in this year's survey have been described by some medical professionals as a ten percent solution to the ergonomic ills afflicting many workers.* To me, it is a misnomer to call any keyboard based on the flat keyboard layout an ergonomic keyboard. It is virtually impossible for a flat, traditional keyboard or any of its derivative versions to be either meaningfully ergonomic or optimally productive. Nevertheless, anything that can help the victims of injury or reduce the risk of injury, even marginally, should be given every chance to offer their benefits to the market. The market should decide, but it should be careful it is not being driven by false, mistaken, or short-sighted values. In my opinion, the DataHand keyboard is the only keyboard on the market worth the money it costs, but I will certainly be considered biased -inasmuch as I am a founding investor in the company that has spent the last several years developing the DataHand concept. I do not believe DataHand Systems has achieved final perfection, but it is light years ahead of any other company in introducing real innovation and ergonomic benefit. Even though I am not injured, I do not like to type even a paragraph on the flat, traditional keyboard anymore. It is just too horrendously demanding athletically by comparison with the DataHand keyboard concept Testimonials, some posted on a variety of Internet bulletin boards and others sent directly to DataHand Systems, show DataHand users in agreement with these views. A ninety-five page collection of user evaluations is available for download at www.datahand.com/testim.html. Short excerpts from both individual DataHand users and corporate managers are also available online at this website. The DataHand concept is different from any other keyboard idea, and it does require learning a new touch and pattern of key movement. For beginners, who have never learned to use any other keyboard, this learning is easier and faster than learning to work on the flat keyboard. Those making the transition from the flat keyboard need about a month to attain or surpass former flat keyboard speed. Some people learn very quickly, others learn more slowly, but the majority need about a month. The flat keyboard design concept is inherently and irreprievably anti-ergonomic. Because the keys had to be laid out to accommodate the arrangement of the key levers on mechanical typewriters, stressful positioning and stressful movement cannot be escaped. In addition, the keys were assigned intentionally∓divide; from the outset -to retard productivity. Workers had to be slowed down, so they would not clash and snarl the mechanism. The biggest barrier to productivity during the century long era of the mechanical typewriter was the entanglement of the key levers. Once the keys became jammed, they had to be painstakingly disentangled. The QWERTY layout was designed to force people to go slowly, so the clashing could be minimized. To accomplish this goal, the keys were distributed to make typing more awkward and more deliberate. Pathetic is the only word to describe a world still trapped in such an agonizing and unproductive cultural habit∓divide;many years after mechanical typewriters have been relegated to dusty museums. The only way to escape the torture and retarded productivity is to embrace an entirely new paradigm -preferably one innovatively designed to meet the work demands of the Information Age. Failure of vision, passivity, and simple laziness have all helped condemn millions of keyboard users to life with an awkward and antique tool -when both improved speed and vastly greater comfort are available. Some may stay with the old concept just because it takes a little time and the commitment to learn a better way. Others resist the expenditure of money -even though the productivity gain alone pays the cost of the DataHand keyboard in less than a year∓divide;even at low wage rates. Detailed information supporting this finding is available for review on the DataHand website at www.datahand.com/studies.html. For more information about DataHand ergonomic keyboards, please call DataHand Systems at 800-875-7171 or send e-mail to: datahand@datahand.com. Don Patterson, [DataHand Systems, inc.]

*OSHA cites 1.8 million injured workers each year from all types of repetitive motion injury. 600,000 of these workers are injured enough to require time off for rest or rehabilitation. Approximately, one-third of all musculoskeletal injury is keyboard-related, according to the Department of Labor. The nation's population of keyboard workers is estimated to be about 18 million. OSHA believes about 3% of this population sustain injury each year, but other studies have found that as much as half of all keyboard workers experience some pain some of the time from work on the traditional flat keyboard and its many derivative models. Those who are not injured now or have not been injured in the past face a high probability of becoming injured during the course of their career according to measured statistics reported by OSHA. Thus, prevention is as important as relief. Then, of course, industry spokespeople claim none of the injury is work-related. They say the affliction is hereditary or caused by other lifestyle factors unrelated to work. Then they say, if it is related to work, it can be fixed by taking stretch breaks. Each person is free to decide for themselves. I choose a user friendly keyboard, like the one I am using to type this letter -a DataHand Professional II mounted on a DataHand® Laplander(TM) Lapdesk together with an Apple Powerbook.

29 March 2000

Edward, I appreciated your article in USA Today 3/29 on ergonomic keyboards. A good keyboard might make more difference to daily productivity than a faster CPU. Maybe your editors do not spend much time typing, but the 40% of heavy keyboard users who experience discomfort may find this a hot topic. I agree with you that the OSHA public hearings will not produce any sexy design. However there already is an enormously sexy keyboard that is being sold. It is called the DataHand keyboard. It wraps the keys three dimensionally around the user's finger tips, so that a static hand location can be achieved. This eliminates wrist flexion bending and allows the arms and hands to be supported. It is not chorded, and the middle three rows of keys are closely emulated so that only minimal relearning is required. The keys require less than 20% of the work load required by regular [traditional, flat] keyboards. It also includes a mouse available without moving the hands (mice are also a source of RSI injury). Most keyboard injured users find that it not only eliminates most of their discomfort, but it is also faster, and they can touch type all the keys including numbers, punctuation and function keys. However you might not want to believe me since I am its inventor. Check it out at: www.datahand.com The web site presents published peer reviewed data showing dramatically reduced user discomfort. It also contains numerous studies from respectable sources that show increased productivity. Even though [publications] keep reprinting the old story that there is not yet a solution to most keyboard caused injury, this is no longer true. The DataHand keyboard is a solution, and it has both studies and thousands of users who prove this claim. I would love to hear what you think about it. An exciting new story would be to find a seriously suffering keyboard user, get them a DataHand keyboard and report on their experiences with it.
 
Dale J. Retter

[Back To Top]

24 January 2000
To the Editor Discover Magazine
editorial@discover.com

Responding to the short article, "Keys to Low Stress" by Josie Glausiusz in the current issue of Discover, the public discussion over ergonomic keyboards has been beset by inadequate science as well as by many claims made by a wide range of manufacturers and their advocates. Subjective evaluation by even experienced ergonomists is not as valuable as hurting workers might wish. Better is hoped for, especially when at least one other product is capable of keeping the wrists in a low-stress position virtually 100% of the time. Badly needed is careful scientific evaluation of the results delivered by all claimants -with no possibly valuable idea denied examination. More than cursory surveys are needed; the job takes longer term investigation with medical results from a large group of keyboard users. Well qualified academic and medical researchers are available to do this work. The methodologies are well established. The only need is for national focus on the issue, and funding. The forthcoming OSHA hearings on workplace rules governing musculoskeletal injury should help advance the achievement of this goal. Some keyboards may not help people much, but that does mean they cannot be valuable at the margin for particular individuals. The marginal products can provide all some people need -at a lower price than the best product. For a variety of reasons, sometimes short-sighted and often budgetary, not everyone wants to buy the best over-all answer. Even the ubiquitous flat QWERTY keyboard was not considered, by some, to be the best mechanical keyboard when it first emerged 130 years ago. Market domination does not always result from excellence. Several years ago, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued a report based on a cursory study of a small number of alternative keyboards, all trying to offer some improvement to the ergonomically-challenged flat keyboard layout. The report said, the studied keyboards were not capable of helping workers very much. The results were widely publicized, and they were generalized as a condemnation of all alternative keyboards∓divide;even those not evaluated in the study. Later, after the damage was done, the NIOSH study was criticized within the scientific community, but the commentary never received press exposure. Subsequent research by highly credentialled medical investigators at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has shown some keyboards addressing only a small fraction of the total ergonomic concern can provide some valuable relief to some people. Until more thorough studies of a wider range of keyboards can be done, personal opinion is pitted against personal opinion. Injured workers are at the mercy of hucksters and outside observers, who may jump on the bandwagon of the latest new design ∓ divide; or they have to be very confident in their own judgment about the best options. Alternative keyboard manufacturers are like the designers of sailing vessels in the days before steamships took over seagoing commerce. Back then, people and companies tried every possible way to improve sail designs to gain a competitive advantage against the rapidly emerging better idea. If the consequences were not tragic for the personal health and productivity of workers, the clamoring to save the old keyboard paradigm from its inherent inadequacies by bending, angling, cupping, humping, tenting (and now making it vertically erect) might be amusing.Careful analysis needs to examine all the factors which can result in musculoskeletal injury. The hand pronation issue discussed in the Discover article is only one of at least nine issues. A variety of different musculoskeletal afflictions exist; hardly any case is exactly the same as the next. Arthritis and tendinitis victims have different needs from the victims of carpal tunnel syndrome. Some injured workers have more than one clinical diagnosis. Often the only way to find a workable answer is to try many different devices until the best one is found. Usually, people try the least expensive approaches first. Such trials can take months. Some people with thumb ailments need foot pedals to manage work others do with their thumbs. Other special needs often exist. These can include special keyforce adjustment and extra cushioning. The following list of nine basic ergonomic issues is not necessarily complete from the point of view of all experts, but it makes a non-epithetical start: 1. Repetition - Most keyboards require 100% repetitive pecking motions. 2. Workload - The fingers of workers using the traditional flat keyboard layout (including its many derivative versions) travel an average of 16 miles a day over the keys expending energy equal to the lifting 1 1/4 tons with the tips of the fingers. Operation of the flat keyboard and its variants require substantial athletic energy. Sideways motion on the keys shown in your article could increase this workload because the gravity contribution is lost. Much depends on the key forces required. 3. Carpal Tunnel Use - Keyboards requiring the same constant, downward pecking motion (or sideward motion if the hand is held vertical) rely on the hand's flexor and extensor muscles attached to tendons passing through the carpal tunnel. 4. Hand Tension - Most keyboards require workers to maintain their hands in a particular position over the keys. The constant tension of this work can cause musculoskeletal injury. 5. Wrist Bend - Many keyboards require significant wrist bend. When the wrist is bent, the carpal tunnel is crimped like a garden hose causing friction on the tendons. Discomfort and injury often result. 6. Upper Body Support - Many keyboards require workers to support their upper bodies with muscular tension so the hands can hover over the keys. The arms do not get good support because they must be free to move whenever the fingers must reach for distant keys.7. Wrist Pronation - Most keyboards require operators to use static muscular tension to twist their wrists into an uncomfortable "pronated" position with the index finger at the same height as the little finger. This is the issue the device in the Discover article addresses. 8. Wrist Motion - Most keyboards require as much as 40 degrees of wrist motion (left and right), particularly when reaching the cursor control, the numeric keypad, and other functions located around the perimeter of the keyboard. Conventional mouse use also requires wrist motion. These motions cause compression and decompression of the soft tissues, tendons, median nerve and blood vessels, especially in the carpal tunnel. 9. Touch Typeability - Most keyboards make touch-typing of all keys difficult. Hand and finger reaches are required to get to all keys. As a result, fatigue increases, error rates rise, and productivity is reduced. Any effective keyboard design should ideally address all the ergonomic and productivity impairing issues associated with the traditional key layout. Keyboards which address all issues decrease the possibility of future injury. This is important when the prospects of injury over a lifetime can range as high as eighty percent, according to OSHA. The flat QWERTY keyboard was designed to force workers to go slowly to prevent key clashes and jammed key levers on mechanical typewriters. This purely mechanical issue was the big productivity constraint of that era. Yet, the keyboard legacy from that time is still the product most people use. If it were not tragic, this reality would be bizarre. Until longer term comparative studies have been completed, potential keyboard buyers must be empowered with the information needed to evaluate the different alternative designs for themselves. Anything less is obfuscation, propaganda, inadequate science, or forced dependency on the judgment of experts. Keyboard design issues are not mumbo-jumbo, nor are they casual. Once people stop to think, design issues are clear, logical, and they need to be meticulously addressed. Alan Hedge's "diddly-squat" can be somebody else's excellent fertilizer. Non-inflammatory approaches to the injury issue should be encouraged. Balanced information and detailed discussion usually lead people to the best choice∓divide;although some people buy more than one product before they get to their final answer. Some DataHand owner reports the use of a prior keyboard as a pronation wedge to help achieve the correct DataHand pronation angle. Personally, I prefer 45 degrees with my hands spread apart about eighteen inches. For me the vertical position introduces static tension of its own, though not as much as the horizontal position. The farther the hands are apart the less the static tension of the horizontal hand position. Some large people work with DataHand units three feet apart on the arms of a big chair. They say they could not work any other way. Of course, the units can be mounted, even adjustably, at any angle the operator wants. Some previously injured workers must be extremely precise about positioning. If people want, they can operate a DataHand keyboard with their arms hanging straight down at their sides. The point is to make the tool fit the person and stop forcing people to contort and stress themselves to fit an unnecessary, arbitrary standard. The best answers are versatile and flexible. Readers are invited to visit www.datahand.com to evaluate the DataHand difference and the DataHand advantage for themselves, but be prepared for an entirely new approach to keyboard work. The DataHand system does not just tweak the old paradigm. It replaces it with an entirely different design intended to be more in tune with the work requirements of the Information Age, but it does require learning a lighter touch. The DataHand keyboard abandons the flat key layout, but it does use QWERTY (or Dvorak, for those who prefer). Once the weaknesses of the flat keyboard are overcome, key assignment does not matter as much. With a significantly improved concept which places the keys right at the tips of the fingers, almost any key arrangement would work. The use of QWERTY just eases the transition to the new concept by workers who are already familiar with the traditional layout.

Don Patterson
DataHand Systems, Inc.
3032 N. 33rd Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85017-5247
800-875-7171
www.datahand.com

This letter was written using the comfortable and productivity enhancing, DataHand® Professional II ergonomic keyboard mounted on a DataHand Laplander(TM) lapdesk together with an Apple® PowerBook. The combined unit makes an ergonomically sensible but still portable computer system.

[Back To Top]

26 November 1999
Ms Laurie Garret,
Reporter Newsday
235 Pine Lawn Road
Melville, NY 11747

Dear Laurie Garret: For the past ten years and still now, it has been difficult to share even your tongue-in-cheek optimism that voice entry can ever do the entire job of a keyboard. The serenity would be badly disrupted to have to listen to one's own voice so much, and we could not listen to NPR while working! Voices would wear out -just like Bill Clinton's. Most experienced people I know find voice modestly adequate for initial entry -part-time, but most of us need to rewrite and edit. For that voice is crude, cumbersome, and slow to the point of impossibility. A more comfortable, less stress inducing keyboard is possible if people are willing to change their paradigm, and yet, failure of imagination shackles the world to an almost one hundred and fifty year-old relic from the era of mechanical typewriters. The antique keyboard, designed to retard speed so workers would not clash and snarl mechanical key levers, should have no role in The Information Age. In addition to poor productivity, it is an ergonomic tragedy, as you know. Still, many people are wedded to this tired icon -even when working on it hurts, sometimes after only a few minutes of work.In August 1988, a front page story in the Wall Street Journal told about forthcoming alternative keyboard ideas. One of the several ideas seemed more than marginally promising. For me that was the beginning of a ten year odyssey helping to bring the DataHand ergonomic keyboard to market. Back then, we had no idea how long it would take for keyboard workers and employers to accept a radically different keyboard concept capable of reducing the stress of keyboard work while also increasing productivity. All the many progress retarding, foot dragging influences, like the repeated Congressional deferral of the OSHA standards, had not yet become clear. Some of them have been explained a bit in the DataHand history included with the attached collection of user testimonials and on-the-job evaluations. In spite of publicity on CNN, ABC, Fox, many newspapers, and several major magazines, many people have been slow to open their minds toward a new concept greatly different from their established mental image of a keyboard. Of course, big advertising budgets have not yet been available. Perhaps your own experience will make you interested to read about the DataHand history and particularly the response of users often with several years of experience to report. Unfortunately, not many newswriters and editors are among the early owners of DataHand keyboards and not many news organizations are listed on the roster of corporate customers. In spite of the many news stories, newspeople have not been as quick as some others to embrace a better idea. Perhaps deadline pressures may make it difficult to take time to learn a new skill or re-learn an old one. Some deadline harassed writers have not even taken the time to explain the DataHand keyboard accurately in their reporting. Several have even erroneously described it as a chorded keyboard, meaning that more than one key would be needed to type a single letter of the alphabet. Because the DataHand keyboard is so different, and because it suffers from what might be called "strange device resistance," usually the only people truly qualified to write accurately about it are the people who have spent more than a month learning and developing experience. There are exceptions, like the blind operator who achieved over ninety words a minute in less than an hour, but they are not the rule. More often people need fifteen to forty-five days to achieve their prior flat keyboard performance level, depending, of course, in part, on their prior speed.... ...the more important calculation is not the short burst performance but the sustained performance through long hours of work. When day long productivity numbers are recorded, they show a significant fatigue based productivity difference compared to workers on the traditional keyboard. (See Fernandez/Stanford study in the enclose packet or at www.datahand.com/speedstudy.html) Of course, price is also a big factor for many. Frequently, people make a judgment based on price before they even study the features, benefits and results their money pays for. Knee-jerk resistance results, even in the face of incomparable functionality. DataHand Systems has had to focus marketing on the decision makers most likely to be open-minded, because they understand productivity-based return on investment as well as all the health cost savings. The smartest managers know they can make very few capital investments capable of amortizing in less than a year on the basis of productivity alone....

Sincerely yours,
Don Patterson
DataHand Systems, Inc.

[Back To Top]

17 September 1999
Ms Jennifer Lee
Reporter
The New York Times
229 W. 43rd Street
New York City 10036

Dear Jennifer Lee:

Having looked at the computer keyboard's links to the past in your article published last month, perhaps you will be interested at looking into the future of computer keyboard concepts as well. The many alternative keyboards that are derivative of the basic flat keyboard are well known. One California doctor has been quoted saying, they are a "10 percent solution" to the ergonomic issues confronting keyboard workers. Another doctor has called theses keyboards, and their parent concept the basic flat keyboard, simply "ergonomically incorrect." Then there are the chorded keyboards which require the activation of more than one key to obtain a single character. It is questionable that any of these solutions with ever allow much productivity improvement. Certainly, they do not seem to have captured the enthusiasm of the marketplace. Voice products are now widely available at much lower prices than previously, but they are not achieving a satisfied response from most workers. L.L. Bean in Maine installed an expensive voice system only to rip it out after discovering how disastrously inadequate it was. Voice probably will have some improving applicability for initial entry, but it is not likely to be a tool of choice for those who must do much editing and rewriting or even those who do long hours of computer work∓divide;unless they are prepared for voice problems like those of President Clinton after long days of speech making! Perhaps by process of elimination the world may be brought to the DataHand minimum motion keyboard∓divide;both because of its ergonomic benefits and because it has proven capable of providing significant productivity improvement. Because it is more comfortable and less stressful to use, the fatigue related productivity benefit alone reaches double digits by the end of a typical workday. Postal Service data shows flat ten key workers keeping up with DataHand ten-key operators for only the first two or three hours of the day. By late morning and for the rest of the shift, the DataHand operators pull away. The longer the workday, the greater the productivity gap. A meta-analysis of the seven sites and over 100 workers shows an average productivity difference of 16% and a minimum of 7%. In addition, companies employing the DataHand minimum motion keyboard realize large Workers' Compensation savings. A statement from the SaraLee Corporation on this subject is in the enclosed package. Many workers with musculoskeletal injury credit the DataHand system with the saving of their careers. A collection of DataHand user testimonials is enclosed. In spite of the strength of this material. The public has the general understanding that none of the alternative keyboards have much to offer anyone. This erroneous point of view has resulted partly from a widely publicized but severely limited study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (released in 1997 and still sent out in pamphlet form) reinforcing the negative conclusion. The study did not correctly examine the keyboards involved in the study, as credible academic leaders in the field have now pointed out, and the DataHand minimum motion keyboard was not studied at all. Nevertheless, the market for it was influenced by the reported findings. Government agencies can speak with a powerful voices even when their statements are based on inadequate science. When the conclusions are supported by pre-existing cultural biases, the problem is compounded. Part of the difficulty is the perception that no new keyboard concept will be accepted by the market unless the transition can be made in a few days. This view was explicitly acknowledged to me by the NIOSH investigator, Dr. Naomi Swanson, who conducted the above study. The view was cited as the reason for excluding the DataHand keyboard from the NIOSH study. It is like throwing out the automobile because it did not respond to a buggy whip. Any valuable new paradigm is going to require learning time and the adjustment of prior thinking. In this case, the whole point is get away from the inadequacies of a 120 year-old paradigm invented to meet the needs of old-fashioned mechanical typewriters plagued with key-clash perils. Workers had to be slowed down by the keyboard design to prevent this problem. Most competent flat keyboard workers require roughly thirty days to get up to former levels of productivity on the DataHand keyboard ∓ divide; although most people find they are adequately fast to perform real work within a few days. People fail to remember how long it took them to get up to speed originally on the flat keyboard. Many require six months or more ∓ divide; because of all the complex flight patterns the fingers must learn and remember. The DataHand keyboard is faster to learn than the flat keyboard for those starting out from scratch, but for transitioning workers, the touch is much softer, and while the key layout is based on QWERTY (or Dvorak, for those who prefer), the fingers do have to gain confidence making entirely different motions. Tactile differentiation of the keystrokes enables the learning to happen more in the fingers than is the case with flat keyboard learning, where all keys feel the same to the fingers. On the flat keyboard a complex range of finger flight patterns (among all the different key combinations) must be learned in the brain. On the DataHand system, the fingers learn through the different feel of each key activation movement. On the DataHand system the hand is stationary and supported on a palm rest. All the work is done by the fingers. Six different functions are managed by the thumbs. Numbers, function keys and mouse operation is placed on the home row by way of shift keys. The keyforce requirement on the DataHand system is well below the academically determined threshold of injury for most workers. Many other details about the system could be explained, but perhaps this will be enough to stimulate your interest. I hope you will be interested in taking a look into the future of keyboard work. One constraint in the market at present is the cost of the DataHand system, but when health and productivity are factored into the purchase decision, especially for people who spend long, daily hours at the keyboard, the low price of the standard flat keyboard is actually a false economy. In the corporate environment, productivity alone allows the capital cost of the DataHand keyboard to be paid off in less than a year. Variations in the rate of pay-off depend on the wage rate of workers and the number of hours of computer work performed each day. If you would be interested in seeing the DataHand minimum motion keyboard and in having a demonstration, please leave a message with Lynn Martineau at 800-875-7171. I will return your call and make arrangements. I will be in Vermont and Ohio for the next two weeks but back at my home location in Virginia by the early days of October. I can be reached there at 540-364-4272. In the meantime, additional information can be found on the DataHand Systems website at www.datahand.com. You might also want to talk with Dan Pavicich, DataHand Systems's Director of Business Development, in Phoenix. I hope I will have succeeded in stimulating your curiosity to look into the DataHand difference.

Sincerely,
Don Patterson
DataHand Systems, Inc.

P. S. The DataHand keyboard does still provide the Numlock key!

[Back To Top]

DataHand Prizes and Awards

• Equipment Magazine - DataHand Professional II Awarded Best Designed Computer Periferal Input Device - September 1998
   
• PC Magazine - Best Keyboard (if price is not an issue) - 21 April 1998
   
• MacWorld Magazine - DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard Rated Better Than the Microsoft Natural Keyboard and the Apple Ergonomic Keyboard - May 1996
   
• Home Office Computing Magazine - Number One Keyboard for the Model Home Office - 1994
   
• Arizona Innovation Network Innovation of the Year Award - 1993

Downloadable DataHand Photographs:

The photographs in this section may be freely downloaded and published with the following photo credit:

Photograph Courtesy of DataHand Systems, Inc., Phoenix, AZ, USA

Downloadable Press Ready Images

A female using theDataHand® Keyboard

A female using the DataHand® Keyboard and Laplander®

A male using the DataHand® Keyboard and Laplander®

A male using the DataHand® Keyboard and Laplander®

A DataHand® Keyboard mounted on a Laplander®

The Right hand DataHand® Keyboard mounted on a Laplander®

The Right- hand DataHand® Keyboard and Laplander®

TheDataHand®
DataProof
Ten Key Keyboard and Laplander®

The Left- hand DataHand® Keyboard and Laplander®

To download an image, Right Click (PC) or Control Click (Mac), and choose a destination for the image file. If viewing in a browser, the Hires images will appear dark or grainy because these files are in a 4"x 5", 300 line resolution format optimized for CMYK offset printing.

DataHand Chronology:
DataHand Product Milestones

1996: Introduced Two New DataHand Keyboard Models: The DataHand Professional II and the DataProof (Right-Handed Ten-Key); Began Sales to Companies with Large-Scale Data Entry Requirements.

1997: Continued Product Testing, Refinement, and Market Development.

1998: Launched Development of Fabuluss Software offering an Alternative to the Standard Graphical User Interface Used on Both the Windows and Macintosh Platforms. The Fabuluss Concept is Designed to Work with Both DataHand Keyboards and Standard Flat Keyboards.

1999: Introduced DataHand Personal Edition for Users without Need for the Programming Features Incorporated into the DataHand Professional II model; Developed an Ergonomic Value-Added Reseller Program.