Another One Bites the Dust

After nearly three years here and with virtually no warning, I was forced last week to hang up my keyboard. The reason is an insidious computer-related syndrome called Repetitive Strain Injury, for short RSI. But who would have guessed it? Sure, I work on a newspaper, I check my e-mail frequently and I concentrate in the social sciences, but my knowledge of computers is fairly limited and like the average student I don't spend more time at my keyboard than I have to.

Several weeks ago, when I first heard of RSI, I was quick to dismiss it as a '90s phenomenon that could only befall computer addicts, attached to their motherboards by a virtual umbilical cord. Alternatively, I wrote RSI off as a trendy psycho-somatic problem for humanities concentrators desperately in need of an extension.

However, neither of these scenarios is the case. RSI can happen to anyone who does not take proper precautions, but, as Joshua T. Goodman, a fourth-year graduate student in computer science and a vice president of Harvard RSI Action says, "It's hard to convince people that it's a serious problem and that it can happen to them, until it happens to them." And in a way, this makes perfect sense. Few people know RSI exists, much less how to prevent it, or that something as seemingly innocuous as typing or using a mouse could be harmful. In fact, the whole damn thing seems ridiculous; yet here I am dictating this column.

I have roughly 80 pages of writing to do before the term ends, and I'm currently suffering from e-mail withdrawal. But if I don't go cold turkey, RSI could become chronic and debilitating, Joshua H. McDermott '98, a special concentrator in brain and cognitive science, recognized symptoms of RSI in March of 1997. He pushed through the end of the semester and now has such a severe case of RSI that he must use a foot mouse and can only type about one sentence before feeling pain. McDermott told me, "If I knew then what I know now, I would have just quit, and taken the rest of the semester off." As it is, he took the fall semester off because the pain was too severe and gave up his hopes of attaining a master's degree in his fourth year here. At its worst, RSI can make even brushing your teeth or turning doorknobs painful.

Recently, efforts at the University have picked up to confront this relatively new problem. Julie Hassel, special assistant to Administrative Dean of the Faculty Nancy L. Maull, is in charge of gathering information about the University and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) initiative to respond to RSI. She reports that the FAS furniture replacement policy will allow students, faculty and staff who need (and request) keyboard trays to have them installed. But this addresses the furniture problem only after the fact. One of the most important aspects of preventing RSI is setting up a proper workstation. "What's really necessary," Goodman says, "is to get the right height for the person using the desk." He went on to say that "in an ideal world, the University would provide desks with adjustable keyboard trays and adjustable chairs for everyone," though he admitted that this "might be an expensive way to not solve the problem." The reason, he explained, is that average computer users don't take the time to adjust their stations correctly because, again, nobody thinks RSI can happen to them.

What this means is that education about RSI must come simultaneously with the complete replacement of every desk and chair in student dormitories. Hassel said that within the next five years, "all the desks that can be retrofitted will be retrofitted" with non-adjustable keyboard trays. But this will still leave a substantial number of desks without keyboard trays, and the glaring problem of not having adjustable chairs will persist. For as Goodman pointed out, a non-adjustable keyboard tray will not necessarily be the right height for everyone.

I would be willing to bet that there is not one improperly set-up workstation in University Hall. But as long as students remain unaware of the danger their typing positions are putting them in, the fact that administrators have "fancy" keyboards and computer setups (that are in fact essential for all computer users) will not seem unjust. The house computer labs are being upgraded next year, Hassel said, but many students who type in their rooms will remain unaccommodated.

It will be expensive to properly equip each room on campus, and it might not do much good if students don't know what the equipment is for. Therefore education is equally important as new desks and chairs. First-years in the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will receive information pamphlets in their registration packets next fall but just as the administration impresses upon new arrivals not to divulge their e-mail password to anyone, it must also impress upon its students the importance of setting up a proper workstation. One pamphlet among many is easy to ignore.

A joint Harvard Medical School-University Health Services "longitudinal study" of the prevalence of RSI is underway, Hassel told me, but until it's completed (and who knows when that will be) we have an epidemic to deal with. My adjustable chair should be arriving today, courtesy of Harvard, and as of last week I have a desk with a non-adjustable keyboard tray. But I could have used them before I had to stop typing.

Daniel M. Suleiman '99 is a social studies concentrator in Leverett House. His column appears on alternate Mondays. There will be an RSI workshop in Mather House on May 2; the Harvard RSI Webpage is located at http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/rsi