New standard to provide guidelines for good office ergonomics launched

Standards for workstation design will help with ergonomic ailments ...

"Seven out of 10 working adults suffer from some form of back, shoulder and neck pain, according to a survey done last year by the Singapore General Hospital.

Often, these aches and pains are a result of poor work habits or badly designed workstations.

To help overcome this, a new Code of Practice for Office Ergonomics was launched on Saturday.

The new standard covers the design and layout of workstations and equipment, such as height of tables, chairs and computers, as well as work postures and environmental factors such as lighting, noise and indoor air quality."   continued ...   (Via Channelnewsasia)

Workstation Design.

Doctors not trained to spot RSI, warn experts

A good article about computer use and RSI ...

"Doctors are failing to spot the symptoms of Repetitive Strain Injury because they are not properly trained, health experts have warned.

Increasing use of computers at home and school, and use of mobile phones for texting, has resulted in people complaining of the disorder at a younger age. More than 240,000 new cases of RSI are reported every year and excessive work pressures are being blamed for the rising number of cases of the condition.

Call centre, office and supermarket workers are among those most at risk of RSI, which is caused by repetitive movement, stress or posture. Now a conference is set to take place in Edinburgh to debate the issues and to help sufferers."   continued ...   (Via Scotsman)

RSI.

Snow Wovel

Now this should help those strained backs ...

"When shoveling snow, you usually end up throwing your back out, falling over, getting pneumonia, and eventually, you die. Or you could start shoveling snow with the Wovel. The Wovel is this huge contraption with a big wheel and a snow shovel attatched to it. You use your body weight to move the snow around and clear out gigantic patches of snow. The scoop on the front is enormous — “easily throws five foot piles of snow” — which makes the Wovel ideal for big jobs that need to be done quickly. Personally, I’d like to find some little kids during a big snowfall and would chase after them with this thing. Genius. You can also pick up some accessories like foam grips. Now all you need are bike pegs and you’re the next BMX/Wovel star. If you demand to eradicate back pain this winter, grab yourself a Wovel for $120 and get to work. The newly redesigned version goes on sale this month."   continued ...   (Via Gizmodo)

The Wovel.

Accessibility Action Shot

Testing products for the visually impared and blind user ...

"I asked Russ "What's this photo you posted in Flickr? Can I post this on web-graphics? Not very often is there an interesting photo to associate with a web-graphics post. Tell me more about it."

He responded:

I do a range of these tests with blind and low vision users when testing sites that are about to be launched, or when Roger and I are doing testing for specific papers, like the cognitive and accessible tables papers.

This particular round of testing is trying to sort out blind and text-based browser users preferences in certain aspects of page layout. We'll be releasing the report as soon as it is published/presented at Ozewai in early December."   continued ...   (Via wg)

Testing products for blind users.

//Mukana

An all-in-one device for the visually impared ...

"//MUKANA (the Finnish for aboard, along, in, on, part, with and within) is a piece of cutting-edge smart clothing for the visually impaired. It connects technology with textiles and thus promotes new approaches to dressing up. Users were given the main focus in the design. A group of visually impaired participated throughout the process of development. The final prototype was thoroughly tested by them.

//MUKANA includes a cell phone, a wireless headset, a Global Positioning System (GPS) module and voice recognition software. The system takes account of the special needs of the visually impaired. Users can ask //MUKANA to tell them their location, to give information on what route to take to their destination or on the timetables of public transportation."   continued ...   (Via //Mukana)

//Mukana.

Ergonomic Mouse round-up

A good review of very different ergonomic mice with respect to RSI ...

"We looked for pointing devices that were created with ergonomics, and only ergonomics in mind. Most of the time these ‘mice’ are marketed towards people suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, however anyone feeling discomfort using a regular mouse should be able to switch to any of these products as well. After receiving some feedback from readers we ended up reviewing the following three products:

- Perific Wireless Dual Mouse

- 3M Ergonomic "Renaissance" Mouse

- Evoluent VerticalMouse 2"   continued ...   (Via TechSpot)

Perific Wireless Dual Mouse.

BMW 5-Series to Integrate Samsung's SGH-i300 Handset

Nice touch but is it ergonomically sensible? ...

"Samsung has announced that it is forming an alliance with BMW to integrate their SGH-i300 musicphone into the iDrive interface available in BMW's 5 Series vehicles.

BMW's iDrive features a control knob located at the center of the vehicle's console and allows access to various functions that are displayed on the in-dash monitor. The SGH-i300 connects to the system via A2DP Bluetooth - allowing for music playback, hands-free calling, and operation of the handset."   continued ...   (Via SamsungHQ)

Samsung SGH i300.

Human Factors

Fatigue is one of the biggest safety factors in the trucking industry ...

"Sometimes the most obvious things escape observation. Or maybe it's because other stuff just obscures the details.

I recently attended the 2005 International Conference on Fatigue Management in Transport Operations conference in Seattle. There, during her keynote address, Annette Sandberg, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), said her agency's primary focus would soon be switching from vehicles and administrative concerns to human factors. "Driver factors," she said, "were up to 10 times more prevalent than vehicle or environmental factors in events that led to crashes between one tractor trailer and a single passenger vehicle."

No kidding, Sherlock.

Trucks seldom jackknife all by themselves. Sure, vehicle defects play a role, but data consistently show vehicle condition is a contributing factor to a crash in a very small percentage of cases. Drivers, Sandberg says, "were considered fatigued about six to 10 percent of the time."   continued ...   (Via Today's Trucking)

Truck Driver Fatigue.