Some time ago I suffered from a bad case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) which german doctors usually diagnose as Sehnenscheidenentzündung or Tendovaginitis/Tenosynovitis. Not being able to normally use a computer or my hands for a prolonged period of time gave me plenty of opportunity to think about how to improve my situation (and how to stay sane). After going through this I figured I might as well share which tools I bought as a result of that thought process.

Staying productive was very important to me because I still had (unrealistic) hopes of finishing my CS BSc within the standard period of time – which included “writing” my bachelor thesis…

While the idea surely sounds wrong using a trackball with your feet is probably one of the best options you've got with RSI. I used a X-Arcade™ Trackball which, being a humongous arcade style trackball, had just the right size and button positioning to be used somewhat comfortably with my feet. It's also nice to have when reading your RSS feeds while eating…

Just remember: your wrists are not the only joints that are endangered by RSI so use your trackball in moderation.

The X-Arcade™ Trackball

The speech recognition worked surprisingly well for web browsing and most applications in general, however, it still had some pretty rough edges (semi-frequent crashing, not really learning how you speak words, etc.) and became tedious to use rather fast. Also, dictating longer texts didn't work that well either.

For the dictation of parts of my bachelor thesis I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard 9. Thanks to VirtualBox I was able to use DNS9 and MS Word¹⁾ without any major issues on my linux workstation. While still somewhat tedious, annoying and nowhere near the speed of touch-typing DNS9 is IMHO more or less as good as speech recognition gets (at least for dictating).

Ever tried playing a game with your feet? No? It's just a matter of desperation and boredom, trust me. After trying out some cheap no-name arcade stick I got myself a X-Arcade™ Solo which was sufficiently large and robust enough to be used this way. Thanks to the large selection of adapters you can use the Solo with your PC (USB or PS2) and most game consoles (Playstation 1/2²⁾/3, Xbox 1, Gamecube (⇒Wii), Dreamcast).

While it takes some time getting used to it is sure better than no gaming at all. Personally I'd recommend turn-based strategy and role-playing games, like Fire Emblem, Disgaea, Chrono Trigger, etc. However, as with the trackball you've got to remember not to overstrain your ankles.

The X-Arcade™ Solo

Easy Read is a simple yet flexible bookholder that makes (mostly) hands free reading quiet feasible. It is pretty nice to have in general even without RSI.

The Easy Read

Three out of four doctors were sure that I had Tendovaginitis, the fourth at least admitted that it was just his best shot. However, when I started seeing a physiotherapist to learn some exercises he dismissed the doctors theory within minutes and after some testing got a pretty good idea of the true cause. Therefore, if you can get some physiotherapy, give it a shot. Also, should you happen to be from around Darmstadt (Germany) I can only recommend ProPhysio.