Later, a coworker began complaining about his neck pain and assumed that even though his pain had begun just six months before, it was somehow due to a car accident he had been in two years ago. Reasoning that he was unlikely to have just started experiencing pain so recently from a car accident that had occurred two years ago, I offered to analyze his work environment. Not surprisingly, I found that he had situated his monitor in a way that required him to twist his neck to view the screen. When I brought this to his attention, he made some changes to his environment and adjusted his computer screen. I didn’t hear anything about his neck pain after that.

After that, I began to seek an explanation for my own pain. I quickly realized that my pain came from using a Microsoft Natural keyboard. Although the natural keyboard allowed my wrists to remain in a neutral position, the narrow width of the keyboard relative to my shoulder width forced me to twist my shoulders inward like a chicken. I did some analysis and research on the internet and found a keyboard that could be adjusted to meet my needs and body proportions. I selected the Freestyle, made by Kinesis, because it was adjustable and had received a 2006 Ergonomics Expo award. After retiring my Microsoft Natural Keyboard and adding some additional strength and conditioning to my routine, my pain went away.  I never had to reduce my computer usage. Had I looked first to my computing environment as the possible source of my pain, I would have avoided several months’ worth of unnecessary expense, stress, and pain.

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