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One-handed typing?

I separated my right shoulder so that arm is going to be out of commission for a while.  (I am right-handed.)  I'm managing about 25 wpm with one hand, or about 1/4 my normal speed.  This is frustrating.  The Handkey Twiddler has been out of production for a while.  The BAT is not OS X compatible. Anyone tried the Half Qwerty keyboard?  Are there other good options for under, say, $300?  (I found several very niche products for significantly more.)

I do plan to try voice recognition for email and IM but I can't see that working very well for code.

Comments

Anonymous said…
There are right-handed and left-handed dvorak layouts, I think.
8:15 PM
Anonymous said…
*one-handed, that is
8:15 PM
Anonymous said…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:KB_Dvorak_Left.svg
8:18 PM
jester02k said…
I have tried frog pad in the past it works ..ok but I think i just didn't give it enough time.
http://www.frogpad.com/
then there was Matias half keyboard I almost bought it but my hand had healed enough so I didn't buy it but it did look interesting better than the frog pad.
http://www.matias.ca/halfkeyboard/
I know the agravation your going through i was the worst time for me
Good Luck
8:46 PM
Anonymous said…
http://blag.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-keyboard-layout-for-the-lazy/
9:32 PM
Nikhil said…
try Dasher ( http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/DasherSummary.html ). Even if you don't like it, the technique looks really cool
9:56 PM
the daniel said…
I have a frogpad - I find it sufficient, after some practice.
11:52 PM
Unknown said…
If you don't mind a little soldering, you could make your own custom one-handed chording keyboard.
4:47 AM
mike bayer said…
feel better ! we need your code to keep coming.....
6:40 AM
Michael Campbell said…
I've flirted with Dvorak in the past and had success with it. Never the 1-handed variety, but it might be worth a shot. It really doesn't take much time to "go back" to a traditional layout.

It took me about 2 weeks to overtake my qwerty speed with dvorak - the only reason I dropped it was I was having to use too many machines that I couldn't control layout over.
9:06 AM
Philip Jenvey said…
ouch, get better soon!
6:04 PM
Nate75Sanders said…
Kinesis sells some foot pedals/switches that you might find useful -- pedals for modifier keys, maybe, and that way you get to use your left hand entirely for non-modifiers. I've heard of people with 2 healthy limbs/hands using them for emacs chording to fight carpal tunnel.

-- Nate
11:57 PM
Anonymous said…
Although it's been awhile since your post, I was curious to see what you decided on. Time for a follow-up post?

A buddy of mine shattered both his wrists in a motorcycle accident and went over to one of these datahand dual hand kbs, http://www.atpm.com/7.05/datahand.shtml and did really well, but they don't seem to be made any more.

And there's the original price tag of $1,000+ (ooch).
6:39 PM
Viagra said…
Left-handed people are one of the most discriminated beings in society. Most of all the items are design to be used by right-handed persons.
9:50 AM
Peter said…
I know this post is a bit old, but I'll post anyway if anyone out there finds this and is looking for a good one-hand keyboard solution.

I'm the developer of a software-based implementation of this one-hand keyboard concept. It's all software, so no need to buy an expensive hardware keyboard. Use the app with your laptop or your favorite keyboard.

The main advantage is that it uses predictive text. So no need to do the "press a modifier key to get the other letter" thing. Just tap "tges" and it will figure out that the word you want is probably "this".

Give it a try if you've injured your arm/hand/fingers:
http://onehandkeyboard.org
11:20 AM
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