Re: Job loss through injury or illness?

[Heidi Waterhouse <HWaterhouse -at- VIDEOUPDATE -dot- COM>]

I sliced open a knuckle in a kitchen accident, and got four stitches in my
right hand.  As you can imagine, this really slowed me down, typing-wise.
Since I was working on hourly at the time, and telecommuting, I charged my
employer for 75% of my time, on the theory that it wasn't his fault I was
down to 15 wpm, but also that I spent a lot of time thinking and not typing.
It seemed like a fair solution.

My sister developed carpal tunnel in 1 month, doing data entry.  When she
got back to college, she invested in Dragon Naturally Speaking.  Her letters
home were pretty funny looking at first, while she was training it, but she
swears she turns out papers faster now than she did before.  She did have to
upgrade her RAM to 64, just to make the computer run naturally, and she
warns against writing papers about middle English, but other than that, it
seems like a viable solution for someone prevented from typing.

For anyone truly worried about repetitive motion, let me suggest learning a
new keyboard layout.  I use the Dvorak layout, and my fingers move a lot
less, and my wrists are less stressed.  As an added bonus, my typing speed
has gone way up.  Check out http://www.dvorakint.org/.  You won't need any
special software, since Win95, NT, and most Macs are already Dvorak capable.
For more information on the joys of freaky typing, mail me off-list.

Heidi Waterhouse
hwaterhouse -at- videoupdate -dot- com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Suzette Seveny [mailto:sseveny -at- PETVALU -dot- COM]
> Sent: Thursday, February 11, 1999 9:25 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Re: Job loss through injury or illness?
>
>
> Over the past year, I have promised myself that I will fully
> investigate
> programs such as Speech to Text and Speaking Naturally, for
> this exact reason.
>  After working for over a year in excruciating pain, due to
> CTS, I determined
> that there had to be a better way.
>
> Funny thing though, when it wasn't hurting as much, the urgency of
> investigating these programs went away.  Thanks Rowena, for
> bringing it up - I
> shall make this a belated New Year's resolution.
>
> I did look into insurance plans that would specifically cover
> use of my hands,
> but found the cost very prohibitive.
>
> Sometimes when my hands are really bothering me, I dictate into a tape
> recorder, and worry about typing it bit by bit, or when my
> hands are feeling
> better.
>
> I'm a firm believer in the fact that I work to live not vice
> versa, but I have
> to admit, I have given up some activities that aggravate my hands.
>
> Suzette Seveny
> Markham, Ontario, Canada
> sseveny -at- petvalu -dot- com or suzette -at- yesic -dot- com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> DISCLAIMER:
> Any opinions expressed are MY opinions.
> Feel free to have your own.
> Let's agree to disagree
> But Please - Don't Flame Me.
>
> Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while, I was a suspect.
>
> ==============================================================
> =============
> Send commands to listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g., SIGNOFF
> TECHWR-L)
>
>
>

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=