Let's Get Ergonomical

Living in campus housing has its advantages and disadvantages. I don’t have to go far for class, which is nice, but I also have no control over the furniture in my room. It is standard issue dorm furniture (read: boxy, heavy wood dresser, bureau, desk chair and desk) that, in addition to being unattractive, is hard (if not impossible) to rearrange and periodically gives me splinters because it’s so old.

This brings me to the topic at hand: the ergonomics of my desk setup. First, let us look at my desk chair. As you can see in the picture, this chair (standard issue) is not particularly appropriate for someone of my height (yes, I am approximately 5’2”), so my feet do not touch the ground if I am sitting with my back straight and against the back of the chair (I also often have this problem while riding city buses, but I digress). A simple solution would be to get some sort of foot rest so that my knees would be at a 90 degree angle and my feet would rest on something. This one, which I found on askergoworks.com, also massages feet.

A chair with good lumbar support would also be good for my lower back, particularly considering my current chair literally has no lumbar support. An adjustable chair would also be helpful as my desk was made for someone much taller and there is approximately 4 to 6 inches of space between my thighs and the desk, which seems excessive. This one, also found at askergoworks.com, fits those criteria.

According to the Cornell Ergonomics website, my keyboard and mouse should be placed so that my “forearms are parallel to my thighs,” generally through the use of a keyboard tray. My desk, however, did not come equipped with drawers, much less a keyboard tray. Also, since I use a laptop, an external keyboard would be necessary. This one (from askergoworks.com) decreases finger strain by having Tab, Enter, and Backspace keys in the middle of the keyboard. My keyboard does currently slant slightly downward, as suggested, because my computer has taken to overheating and now sits on a cooling fan. While I have gotten used to the fan, I admit that it is tiring to type now because my forearms rest on my computer but my elbows are in the air while I type. This increases the tension that I already have in my shoulders, as well as leads to headaches from the back, lower part of my head. Also, having my wrists resting on the computer increases the pressure on my nerves. My computer screen appears to be at an appropriate position, though it could probably be higher. My mouse is comfortably located on my right (while I am left handed, I have much more difficulty controlling the mouse with that hand, so I use my right). I also do not currently use a document holder, but I am generally working on assignments from the Internet or from memory, so I am not often looking down while typing.

There are definitely ways that I can make my workspace more ergonomical, so these resources are helpful to me. The most interesting piece of information I found was concerning my mouse. Overuse of the scroll wheel can apparently cause some sort of thumb overuse problem called DeQuervain’s Disease. See how it affects your hands at WebMD.

Thank you Wikipedia.org and WebMD.com for increasing the amount of information us hypochondriacs have at our fingertips.