No wrist rests at Marshall

Matt Crist

Issue date: 11/28/06 Section: News

With computers popping up in every college, high school, middle school and elementary school in the United States, wrist rests are now a popular item in the marketing world.

Wrist rests are devices that accompany keyboards and mice to add comfort while using computers. They also may help prevent repetitive motion injuries of the hand such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Chuck Elliot, director of customer services, said University Computing Services no longer provides wrist rests to students because of theft and hygiene.

"We used to have some mouse pads and some gel wrist rests in the labs and they kept getting stolen," Elliot said.

Since the adoption of optical mice, which do not rely on mechanical balls for cursor movement, university computing facilities labs have been rid of mouse pads.

"As far as wrist rests go, I put those in the same category as I would headphones, Elliot said. "They are accessories that can make it a better experience for you in our computer labs, but they are really kind of personal. I mean, whatever wrist rest you are using, you're going to transfer you know…oil and sweat or whatever from your body and some people would find it gross having to use one that someone else just used."

Although UCS does not provide wrist rests to students, UCS is not discouraging the use of wrist rests, Elliot said.

"We don't keep any available for checkout," Elliot said. "We recommend that people buy them for their own personal use and bring them with them."

Dr. Stanley Tao, Marshall athletic team orthopedic surgeon, said anyone at a computer for an extended period of time should consider using wrist rests.

"I have been seeing CT in younger patients recently, but not many at the college level," Tao said.

Carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms at an earlier age can be attributed to increased computer use, Tao said.

In addition to wrist rests, there are some specific exercises that can help students when they use a computer for an extended period of time, Elliot said.

"They should get up and take a break every 30 to 45 minutes, walk around, stretch, get their circulation going, stretch again, try to avoid sitting in an awkward position, sit properly at the workstation and have the monitor adjusted properly," Elliot said. "Making sure the monitor is properly positioned, making sure you can properly get to the keyboard and mouse, and making yourself comfortable…that also helps."

Matt Crist can be contacted at crist6@marshall.edu.

Return