Are the legs on your keyboard causing wrist pain

Published in Keyboards on Friday, 22 January 2010
by Catherine Albert  |   Post RSS

Could the legs up on your keyboard be causing wrist pain?

Many keyboards over the past 10 -15 years have been designed with small legs at the back of the keyboard to allow you incline the keyboard towards you while you type.

For some reason many people think they should put the legs up and tilt the keyboard towards them. However, in this position the wrist can be forced into a slightly awkward posture with too much angle.  Holding the hands up in this position requires more muscle work than typing with a flat hand posture. It also tends to result in computer users resting their wrist on a wrist rest while keying and this is known to result in more pressure on the wrist itself, find out more about using wrist rest.


In fact recent research has shown that having the hand position tilted in the opposite direction results in lower hand and forearm discomfort. Sometimes a keyboard tray that sits under the desk is recommended.

However the problem with both trays and tilting the hands away from the body  is that many computer users are not touch typists. If the keyboard and the keys tilt away it makes it more difficult to see and type. Sometimes it will result in you learning forward  to see the keys and this of course will put strain on your neck and shoulders.

So it’s a balance between positioning the keyboard that is comfortable for the hand and wrist and positioning it so you can see what you’re doing. Of course if you have good touch typing skills than this isn’t going to be a problem because you don’t need to look at your hands - and perhaps that is the answer. If you have hand and wrist problems you could improve your keying skills and then you will have more option as to the position and type of keyboard you can use.

So using the legs on your keyboard could be contributing to your wrist pain and you need to keep your wrist and hands flatter when keying.

Some of the newer keyboards such as the Microsoft natural do not have legs and try to accommodate what is called the negative tilt of a keyboard. The only drawback is that it is a bulky keyboard to fit on the desk because it is a fixed angle curved keyboard with an integral palm rest

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