Please consider signing my petition to the PM

[sdk]

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to conduct an investigation into the benefits of the use of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout.

[damian_steele]

Considered and rejected.
I'll stick with my Qwerty, thanks.

[bluebedouin]

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to conduct an investigation into the benefits of the use of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout.

Significant benefits to productivity and health might be realised if the purported advantages of the Dvorak SKL are real.

As a two finger typist,a new layout wouldn't make any difference to me health wise.I would still have to look for the letters & learn their placement.Something I have almost managed with a qwerty.!

[sdk]

As a two finger typist,a new layout wouldn't make any difference to me health wise.I would still have to look for the letters & learn their placement.Something I have almost managed with a qwerty.!

Check out the free typing tutor Stamina. This will help you to learn touch-typing in fairly short order, whether you're on a Dvorak or a QWERTY (or any layout, for that matter).

Part of the health problem with typing is posture-related. Learning how to touch-type will improve your posture automatically - you're looking ahead, instead of down. And if you are going to learn to touch-type, then you might as well learn the Dvorak layout. QWERTY was designed for the benefit of a (now long-obsolete) machine, whereas Dvorak was specifically designed with the human in mind. As such, it's easier and faster to learn to touch-type with the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout.

But, whether or not existing users are prepared to give the Dvorak a try (and many, for whatever reasons, dismiss the idea out-of-hand), the main reason for my petition to the Prime Minister is not the mass of existing keyboard users, it's the next generation.

There is nowadays absolutely no reason to force children to use the archaic QWERTY keyboard. A better device exists, though most are blissfully unaware of it: and unless and until we can get the decision makers to sit up and take note, we're condemning children to use the QWERTY layout - from an earlier age than ever before - forcing them to use a device that is known to cause health problems long-term.

[sdk]

If you are a parent concerned about the long-term well-being of your darling sprogs, please consider signing my petition (and if you can encourage anyone else to do so too, that would of course help!).

I need 200 signatures to get a formal response from the government, and I've only got 12 so far. Laughable, yes: but to me this just underlines the need for education about this issue.

When I asked the well-known Dvorak advocate, Marcus Brooks, whether he could do anything to promote this petition, his (supportive) reply included the comment:

"I think a lot of people would be justified in saying there are bigger problems to solve in this world."

To which I responded:

"You're right that there are a great many 'bigger problems' to be addressed. However, as the keyboard is such an essential tool these days, enabling people to use it more efficiently indirectly contributes to helping to solve all those other problems, too "

[mainlypostcards]

sdk,
You are obviously passionate about dvorak.
However, having learned to type in another language on a qwerty manual typewriter and since used my typing skills in 3 different languages, can you actually explain what the differences are? Why is dvorak better?

[sdk]

sdk,
You are obviously passionate about dvorak.
However, having learned to type in another language on a qwerty manual typewriter and since used my typing skills in 3 different languages, can you actually explain what the differences are? Why is dvorak better?

Wow, now you're asking. The simple answer is that typing using a Dvorak layout (or indeed any other ergonomically-designed key layout; there are in fact several, of which Dvorak is simply the oldest, most tested, best known) involves less finger movement. The fingers of a QWERTY typist typing for eight hours in a day travel 16-20 miles (!) in all: the fingers of a Dvorak typist typing the same copy will travel only a single mile - and it won't take eight hours either, since the Dvorak layout makes typing both faster and more accurate.

Perhaps the most important thing to realise is that the QWERTY layout was NOT designed with humans in mind. The chap who set out the QWERTY layout (in the 1860s) was trying to overcome a problem with his new invention - the manual typewriter (when was the last time you saw one of those?). His machine kept jamming up, so he set out the keys in a way that reduced the jams. He wasn't interested in making things easier for typists: touch-typing wasn't even thought of until ten years later!

Simple tests prove that the QWERTY layout is no better than any random key layout as an input device for the English language. Dr. Dvorak designed his layout (he called it the 'Simplified' layout - with reason - it was only much later that his name became associated with it) with human physiology, and the construction of the English language, in mind.

In short, the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout is ergonomically designed. QWERTY isn't. Those are indisputable facts.

There's a wealth of information about Dvorak on the Internet; some of it isn't quite right (you can't trust everything you read on the Innerwebz) but most of it is. Just make sure you search for 'Dvorak keyboard' and not just 'Dvorak' - otherwise you'll get loads of hits about the classical composer Antonin Dvorak.

As for my petition; please consider signing it; I need a minimum of 200 signatures to get an official response from the government, and (obviously) a great many more than that to have any chance of persuading The Powers That Be to encourage a move away from this obsolete QWERTY arrangement.

What really got my goat was seeing television air-time being given to some crowd (the name escapes me) that offer a widget that is aimed at teaching children as young as three (!) how to use the QWERTY layout. There's only one reason that parents would be persuaded to buy such a device for their little darlings - and that's because they're unaware that there is (at least one) alternative to QWERTY.

It's been known for decades that the QWERTY layout causes unnecessary fatigue - and that was when people learned how to type when they were almost adults. Seems to me to be pretty obvous that if you start people using keyboards with this layout from an earlier age, we're just asking for even more RSI-type problems in the community in the years to come.

I could go on (I should write a book), but I'll leave it there... please do ask if you have any other questions!

[sdk]

There's only one more month to go before the petition closes. Thank you for signing, if you did: and if you haven't yet, please consider it

[HannaHolly]

Hi. I don't know which keyboard is best- but have no onjections to there being additional research. people don't like change- but maybe change is the right thing here? anyway- i've signed your petition

[sdk]

Thanks!

You're right, people don't like change. I think that's the reason why the Dvorak layout hasn't won acceptance even though it's been around for 76 years. I think that's a little odd, myself: these days it's the one thing that is relatively easy to adopt, and it affects almost everything we do, given that we do so much on the Internet now, and so many more people use keyboards now than did three-quarters of a century ago.

We keep being forced to accept 'upgrades' that are often downgrades in disguise. Take Hotmail for instance, a new version of that was foisted on me by dear old Microsoft a few months ago, without even a by-your-leave. The old version served me well for years without a glitch: this new version has caused me several problems. And mobile phones: many people rush out (or line up in queues for hours) to be the first to get the latest whizz-bang model: but suggest that there's a better keyboard layout available and they all don't want to know...

*shrug*

Thanks again, HannaHolly, it's much appreciated. As you say, there's no harm in a bit of research, and who knows, maybe it will do some good for the next generation - who are the ones that really concern me. They aren't told that there are alternatives to QWERTY, they're just told by 'the establishment' to use it -because 'everyone else does'. They're starting to learn 'keyboard skills' younger than ever these days, which, given that QWERTY is well-known to be a contributing factor to RSI-type problems, means that we're doing them no favours by continuing to lock the poor buggers into it.

(Actually, my favourite child-raising technique is the 'barrel' method; but that's easy for me to say, as I have no sprogs of my own )