Five professors and graduate students in the Department of Computer Science have suffered disabling repetitive stress injuries in as many years. The situation prompted Guillaume Marceau GS to organize a lecture by Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss about hand-related repetitive stress injuries from computer use and how to prevent them.
Repetitive stress injuries among computer users mostly result from poor typing form and can be life-disabling, Weiss, a professor of orthopaedics at Brown Medical School and a surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital, told an audience in Barus and Holley 168 Thursday afternoon.
"Someone with a life-disabling injury cannot open doors on their own without pain moving up their arm," Marceau said. "They wouldn't be able to touch keyboards anymore. They might not even be able to wash their own hair."
RSIs are common, especially among Brown graduate students. About one in 30 or 40 working adults suffers from some form of RSI, Weiss said.
Ultimately, Weiss said, computer users should maintain good typing posture and take plenty of breaks. Not much is known about RSI, and often, once it becomes severe, it is difficult if not impossible to treat.
RSIs are specific to soft tissue such as tendons, ligaments, muscles, nerves and blood vessels. Most people who suffer from RSI experience it in their necks, shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, hands and fingers.
Marceau asked Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science Andries van Dam to host the lecture after hearing Weiss deliver a similar speech in February 2004. Van Dam invited Weiss, who has treated him for an ongoing wrist problem, to speak in September so new students could benefit from his information before injuring themselves.
Marceau, who suffers from RSI-related wrist problems, is part of a growing movement to discover the causes of, improve prevention of and create solutions for RSI. He and Elisabeta Marai GS are currently conducting a survey of all Brown graduate students who suffer from RSI.
Clinical studies have yet to determine the causes of RSI; Weiss told The Herald he believes that the causes of RSI may never be discovered.
"You need a homogenous pool to study. You can only find that in larger companies, who won't volunteer employees for studies, because they'd be subjecting themselves to lawsuits," he said.
Weiss also said he believes the cure to RSI may lie in technology like voice recognition software.
But van Dam, co-founder of the Department of Computer Science, believes such technology needs more development before it can become a practical aid. Dictation software makes various errors, he said, which require damaging repetitive action to correct, and if one has a foreign accent, the software may not work at all.
Symptoms of RSI, which may not occur until days after the injury, include tingling, numbness, pain, swelling and the loss of strength or dexterity.
Jenine Turner GS suffers from debilitating RSI-related tendonitis.
"It came on in a couple of days and I couldn't function for two months," she said. "One day it started hurting and within two days I was in a great deal of pain. I couldn't work at all. It's been very difficult. It's been four months, and I still can't type."
Turner injured herself at the end of the Spring 2005 semester and was barely able to finish one of her final exams, since she could only work for five minutes at a time. Her family typed her final paper for her, at her dictation.
To recover over the summer, Turner read papers and underwent physical therapy. This semester she is taking reading-intensive courses and avoiding programming while she tries to heal. However, Turner's insurance company refuses to pay for her physical therapy because she suffers from a stress-related injury. She has stopped receiving treatment.
"I can't pay for it on my own and it's the only thing that's been helpful," Turner said.
Turner's adviser wants her to hire a typist to aid her with her studies. Turner cannot afford a typist, so she is considering Brown's disability support options. If she runs out of alternatives, Turner's adviser offered to pay for a few hours of typing a week.
"I'm lucky. You can't expect an adviser to be so accommodating. If your adviser isn't, you're in trouble," she said.
Many graduate students and professors who suffer from RSI hire undergraduates to do their typing for them. Marceau pays $15 a week to post an advertisement for a typist on the Daily Jolt, although he also relies heavily on word of mouth. According to Marai, professors and graduate students pay typists more than Brown Dining Services pays Sharpe Refectory employees per hour.
One alum requested anonymity before being interviewed because, he said, "RSI is a disability, just like being in a wheelchair. Disabilities aren't supposed to affect the hiring process, but they do. RSI doesn't prevent me from doing my job, but employers still discriminate."
A computer science major in college, the alum's problems began when he reached graduate school. He managed his time so that he'd only type for a few hours a day to avoid an injury. However, one programming test required him to type for eight hours a day for five consecutive days. This resulted in a major strain that left him with a debilitating case of tendonitis.
The alum is now able to type, but only for short intervals.
"I eventually get to a point where I physically have to stop typing, because it's unbearable - like walking on a sprained ankle," he said.
Since the University wouldn't pay for a typist or ergonomic equipment, the alum paid for both on his own, and he credits his relatively swift recovery to those aids. He said he believes the University should provide its affected students similar re-sources if necessary.
