Technology for Arthritic Hands
ProfHacker 2018-04-11
I remember a few months ago, someone shared an article about a microwave that took voice commands, and while most people find that kind of thing useless, my first thought was that some people have disabilities, and the buttons on the microwave could cause problems for people who have diseases such as arthritis, where pushing small buttons could be difficult. And I said so.
Fast forward to last week, and I am now experimenting with technologies that support arthritic hands myself. When I asked my doctor here in Egypt about lifestyle changes I should make, he didn’t have a lot to offer apart from improving my posture and getting some kind of wrist support when sitting on a keyboard and a foot stool. But that’s not enough for me because I write a lot, and typing hurts, and I also type a lot on my phone, so an ergonomic keyboard solution wasn’t going to be enough for me. I searched the web for all kinds of things that I’ll test out from special gloves to things that help with getting dressed and getting shoes on and opening jars. But I thought I would share the particular digital technology tools here on Prof Hacker in case you or someone you know (student, colleague, family member) ever loses (temporarily or permanently) functionality in their fingers/hands.
Here are some easy technologies that I never knew would support someone with arthritis in their hands but I’ve discovered have been really helpful to me.
Voice typing, which I’m using right now. There are several different voice typing tools (see comparison) and these have come a long way from when I first tried Dragon Dictation 10 years ago and it misunderstood every other word. The best one for me so far is just the regular Google voice typing that comes with my Android device, and for some reason it works better than Google voice typing on Google Docs from my computer. I’m not sure if this is because the mic on my computer isn’t as good as the one on my phone or if it relates to my internet bandwidth at home. I would expect them to be comparable, because they both use Google AI. But I have concerns over how this affects my privacy and I’m going to look into this, and it is also of course inconvenient to use when you are surrounded by people. Of course, Siri does something similar for iOS and Windows has Cortana, but I have not turned that on yet (used to be concerned about privacy as well…). I used to think these tools were made for people with visual disabilities or paralysis, or people who were just slow at typing (unlike me), but I did not really realize how useful it is for arthritic hands and I’m thankful they are such good quality nowadays and free! My main problem with the voice typing I have is that it constantly misunderstands when I say “period”. It initially writes a “.” and then changes it to “period”. I am most impressed by how it goes back and edits the text after I finish a sentence to make the sentence make more sense, and it usually gets this right. So I’ve learned not to correct it immediately. It does not seem to understand Arabic, though, even when Arabic keyboard is turned on, so I’ll figure out if I need to install something new? I flirted briefly with the idea of doing a podcast/blog in one go, but the voice typing needed me to slow down my speech to the extent it would not make a really engaging podcast, so I abandoned that idea.
Audiobooks and podcasts. I have used and loved audiobooks and podcasts a lot over the years, to multi-task, while walking or exercising, and during my commute time. I also used to think that these were most beneficial to people with visual disabilities, but now that it’s very difficult for me to hold a book, and even turning a page on Kindle really hurts, I’m going back to listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and it is very rewarding, both as a way to read without hurting my hands, but also to help me through insomnia (which I already had, but seems to be exacerbated by my constant pain or medication or some combination of all three).
Arthritis tracking apps. I’m on the fence about these. I’m not going to use them yet, because I have concerns about posting details of my health on an app. I might choose to blog explicitly about my illness if I feel the need or desire to, or let other people know about it, but that’s not the same as voluntarily posting the details of my illness to be somewhere on a cloud that collects data about arthritis. But I still thought I’d share in case other people have a response to this privacy concern, or in case people want to correct me and let me know that I shouldn’t worry because these are reputable organizations (everyone is hackable, though!)
If I’m lucky, I may not need to use these all the time, but they’re still really convenient, and I’m thankful that they exist.
Do you have favorite apps to help with arthritis or other needs? Tell us in the comments.