Wrist Postures While Typing on a Standard and Split Keyboard

Abstract

Fifty experienced typists participated in a laboratory based repeated measures study with two factors: keyboard height (three) and keyboard configuration (three). The work surface heights tested were 63, 67 and 71 cm. The three keyboard configurations tested were: standard (Apple Extended™), alternative keyboard A (Microsoft Natural Keyboard) and alternative keyboard B (equivalent to Natural Keyboard with Leveler™ extended). Wrist and forearm posture data was acquired using electronic goniometers during 10 minutes of typing at each keyboard/height level. Across all heights tested, wrist extension, wrist ulnar deviation, and forearm pronation were statistically significantly closer to neutral when using alternative keyboard B than when using the standard keyboard.