Maltron Keyboard User Story

“I had been working as a computer Analyst programmer for 18 years, not using a Maltron keyboard, just an ordinary desktop. In the last 6 years of this period, I developed RSI. This eventually meant being off work for 3 and a half months. In which time, two colleagues were needed full time to cover the work I had been doing.

The Orthopaedic Surgeon said that I was fit to return to work, provided I was only given one person’s worth of work to do, so that I could take a ten minute break each hour away from the keyboard. This is when I discovered Stephen Hobday’s wonderful invention, the Maltron keyboard. My return to work was only made possible, by its use, as when using a laptop or ordinary keyboard I got pain within minutes. My hands were so damaged that I was obliged to give up work as an Analyst programmer in 2002, on health grounds.

However, due to the fact that I can type with a Maltron keyboard all day, provided I have breaks from it, I have not had pain at all in my hands due to the typing. It’s just marvellous, I have two keyboards, one upstairs for pleasure writing, and one in the office.

Since leaving my programming job, I have trained as a Rehabilitation worker for newly blinded adults. I then worked as user participation co-ordinator for Action for Blind People. Since 2006 I have been training blind people to use computers. I can do this by phone, and so I use the Maltron keyboard full time from home. I still find many things, like using mobile phones to text, causes me pain, and it’s such a treat to be able to type fast, on the Maltron keyboard without any pain at all.

The keyboard is light weight, so for some clients I can take it with me, and demonstrate how to work the computer using the Maltron keyboard myself.

As a blind person who cannot see enough to read the keys, I touch type, and the positioning of the keys on the Maltron makes this far easier. As they are all at different heights, I can tell which is which far more easily than on a conventional keyboard.

As a preventative for RSI I would highly recommend this keyboard. I have been using it for the past 13 years, and without it, I would not have been able to carry out the jobs I have been doing. Due to the Maltron keyboard I have been able to. This has also meant that many blind people have been able to find productive things to do using their computers with speech output.

Stephanie Sergeant, Charisma Training. stephanie@screenreader.net