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Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

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Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#21

Post by fouronnes3 »

lburton wrote: post #6

This will depend a bit on the person but for me when I injured my right arm I found that my touch typing muscle memory worked surprisingly well with a toggle key to flip the left side of my keyboard to become a mirrored version of the right side. Each finger was still hitting the same key like it would if I was using my right hand to hit the key but on my left hand. This was fairly easy to accomplish on a QMK firmwar…

I am low key thinking about trying this without any disability, as a way of always keeping the right hand on the mouse.

Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#23

Post by faizshah »

lburton wrote: post #6

This will depend a bit on the person but for me when I injured my right arm I found that my touch typing muscle memory worked surprisingly well with a toggle key to flip the left side of my keyboard to become a mirrored version of the right side. Each finger was still hitting the same key like it would if I was using my right hand to hit the key but on my left hand. This was fairly easy to accomplish on a QMK firmwar…

I had the same experience, my typing speed with two hands is 90-120 but with one hand i can still get 50-70. The hard part is punctuation but with AI these days you could try just prompting and let the AI deal with syntax for you.

Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#25

Post by deng »

Specialty keyboards like the TiPY are indeed very expensive, here in the EU it's a thousand (!) Euros:

https://tipykeyboard.com/en/produkt/tipy-keyboard-black-en

However, if your relative is employed and needs to type for the job, then there's a good chance the employer will pay for it if it means they can work more efficiently during these months. Another option, which however is much less likely to succeed and will probably take much longer, is to try to get this through health insurance.

Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#26

Post by arjvik »

lburton wrote: post #6

This will depend a bit on the person but for me when I injured my right arm I found that my touch typing muscle memory worked surprisingly well with a toggle key to flip the left side of my keyboard to become a mirrored version of the right side. Each finger was still hitting the same key like it would if I was using my right hand to hit the key but on my left hand. This was fairly easy to accomplish on a QMK firmwar…

Randall Munroe talks about exactly this:

https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-ke...

Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#27

Post by donatj »

rowla wrote: post #17

One-handed typer here – well, one hand and one finger, and it’s been like this for all my life. Your friend may want to consider text macro tools such as Keyboard Maestro for macOS. There are many others, but KM will also launch apps and do other magic for me just by typing two or three letters. Create a list of frequently used words or segments, define a generic expansion key (in my case #) that doesn’t require a mo…

My dad has the same situation, one arm and one finger on said arm - the beefiest pinky you've ever seen.

He does most of his typing these days with voice-to-text on his Android phone, and he's pretty adept with it. Otherwise he gets by pretty well with a standard Apple keyboard. He's not winning any speed awards but he does alright.

Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#28

Post by wrp »

I once needed to seriously investigate a setup for one-handed typing. My conclusion at the time was that after a learning period, one-hand typing on a regular keyboard was just as productive as using a special keyboard, and had the advantage of not needing special facilities. I think the only special feature needed was the addition of a "sticky" key facility.

Re: Ask HN: Options for One-Handed Typing

#30

Post by kingnothing »

I had a surgery once upon a time on my non-dominant arm which left me in a one-handed typing state for a couple of months. I simply used one hand on a full size keyboard. My typing speed went through the floor, but it was doable. I doubt I would invest the time, effort, and expense to learn dedicated hardware if I had to go through it again. I definitely would explore those options if I had permanent loss of the hand, though.
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