Single-handed Keyboarding

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People who use or choose to type with one hand can use a keyboard layout that’s far better than the QWERTY keyboard. Here’s how a single-handed keyboard works: the numbers 0-5 are placed down the side of the keyboard, allowing all four rows to be used for letters. You place your fingers in the center of the keyboard with the most frequently used keys under the hand so fingers travel up and down like on a number pad. This allows a single-handed user to keyboard without looking.

The keys are rearranged electronically in MS Windows and Macs for the single-hand layout so that the user can type on the standard keyboard. Fuzzy dots locate the new finger position. Either a KEYTIME® single-hand keyboard may be purchased with the letters arranged in the single-hand layout or transparent KEYlabels may be purchased to relabel the keys. If more than one keyboard for multiple key layouts on one computer are being used, the Y-Key-Key is available so that the connector cables do not wear out. A Foot Pedal greatly facilitates the efficiency for the single-hand user (and everyone) by tapping a pedal to back space, hold three keys, use caps and more.

Linda Lewis, founder of KEYTIME®, convinced Microsoft to make the single-handed layout available on the Windows and Dos operating systems. It’s easy to download the system to your computer. If you share a computer, you simply click back and forth between the QWERTY layout and the alternative keyboard using the icon on the task bar. The single-handed layout is also available for Macintosh computers.

See examples of single-handed keyboards below:

Dvorak keyboard for the left hand:

Dvorak keyboard for the right hand: