EH&S does not diagnose injuries or illnesses or seek information regarding medical conditions, diagnoses, suspect conditions, physical therapy, or other medical appointments during any part of the evaluation process. When this type of information is provided by the requestor of his/her own volition, the details are not recorded, transmitted verbally, or placed in emails or memos. 

The evaluator strives to provide options for adjustment or reconfigurations to the existing office equipment to reduce or eliminate repetitive motions and facilitate an office environment conducive to healthy postures. EH&S recommends the purchase of new equipment only when the current office equipment presents severely limited options for reconfiguration and adjustment or is defective. 

The employee is encouraged to involve their supervisor throughout the ergonomic assessment process. EH&S does not have funds to purchase or install equipment. All recommendations are strictly optional and at the discretion of the employee's supervisor. It is the responsibility of the department to allocate resources as they see fit.

The design of laptops violates a basic ergonomic requirement for a computer, namely that the keyboard and screen are separated. In the early days of personal computing, desktop devices integrated the screen and keyboard into a single unit, and this resulted in widespread complaints of musculoskeletal discomfort. By the late 1970s several ergonomics design guidelines were written, and all called for the separation of screen and keyboard. The reason is simple: with a fixed design, if the keyboard is in an optimal position for the user, the screen is not, and if the screen is optimal, the keyboard is not in an optimal position. Consequently, laptops are excluded from current ergonomic design requirements because none of the designs satisfy this basic need. This means that you need to pay special attention to how you use your laptop because it may cause you problems.

Tips for Laptop Size and Mice

Using a laptop is often a trade-off between poor neck/head posture and poor hand/wrist posture. The following tips should help you avoid a laptop related musculoskeletal injury. The same posture principles apply to other input devices (e.g., trackball, touchpad, pen, digitizing puck, etc.).

Keyboard size

The smaller the laptop, the smaller the keyboard, so make sure that you can comfortably type on a keyboard that may be only 75% the size of a regular keyboard.

External keyboard

If you plan on using a laptop as your primary computer, you may want to consider using an external, full-size keyboard to reduce ulnar deviation (outward bent wrists).

Laptop riser

To avoid neck strain you should place your laptop on a riser so that the screen is at eye-level.

Mouse grip

 Hold the mouse gently to move it over a mousing surface.

Mouse from the elbow

Avoid skating or flicking the mouse with your wrist. Make controlled mouse movements using your elbow as the pivot point and keep your wrist straight and neutral.

Optimal mouse position

Sit back in your chair, relax your arms, then lift your mousing hand up, pivoting at the elbow, until your hand is just above elbow level. Your mouse should be positioned somewhere around this point.

Protect your wrist

If you look at the anatomy of the wrist it is curved away from any contact surface (you can easily see this by resting your hand/arm on a flat surface - you'll see light under the wrist and can probably even pass a thin pen under). The forearm is shaped like this so the exposed blood vessels near the wrist can remain free of surface pressure contact. Any pressure in this region will disrupt circulation into the hand and this will increase the risks of injury.

Do not rest your wrists on a hard surface

 Placing your wrists on a hard surface (especially corners) greatly increases the pressure inside the carpal tunnel, causing it to become inflamed.  This inflammation can lead to chronic pressure and pain on the median nerve, which supplies feeling and movement to parts of the hand.

Avoid restricting arm movement

With a softly padded wrist rests, especially one that is rounded, or a soft chair arm rest, the forearm becomes "locked" into position. This encourages mouse movement by flicking the wrist, which can increase pressure on the carpal tunnel.

Palm Support

The base of the palm of the hand (not the wrist) is the part of the body designed to support the hand when resting on a surface. With a keyboard, the best palm posture is for users to float their hands over the keyboard when typing and then to rest palms during micro-breaks between typing bursts. With a mouse, the palm ma rest on the surface but movements should be made using the elbow as the pivot point, not the wrist. Anything that impairs free movement of the forearm/hand and mouse will increase injury risks.

Mouse shape

Try to choose a mouse design that fits your hand but is as flat as possible to reduce wrist extension. A symmetrically shaped mouse is usually preferred to a curved mouse.

Load sharing

If you want to load share between your left and right hands (that is, use the mouse for some of the time with each hand), a symmetrically shaped mouse that can be used by either hand.