Typing with arthritis
What actually helps, in the order it helps.
- Free settings first
- Then the kit
- Then the typing itself
Free to try. No card. Every feature included.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14 or later · Windows 11
Most advice here is about making typing more comfortable. Worth doing, and it has a ceiling: the number of key presses does not move. This is the same list, sorted by how much each thing takes away.
1. Turn on Sticky Keys
Holding Shift while stretching for a bracket is one of the worst things a sore hand is asked to do. Sticky Keys lets you press the modifier, let go, then press the letter.
- Accessibility settings, on both Mac and Windows
- Thirty seconds, free, and reversible
- Capitals, brackets and every shortcut get easier at once
2. Slow down the key repeat
Rest on a key a moment too long and the computer reads it as fifteen of the same letter. Then you delete fourteen, which is more typing.
Both systems let you change how long a key waits before repeating, and how fast. Push the delay up and the speed down.
3. Make each press cost less
- Low-profile boards, laptop keyboards included, need less push and less travel
- Tall mechanical keyboards with stiff switches need more
- Split and tented boards help some people a lot and suit others badly
Try before you spend. Better kit changes how a press feels, not how many there are.
4. Type the same thing once
An address, a standard reply, a long product name. macOS has text replacement built in; on Windows it is per app, and Word’s AutoCorrect is the usual way in.
It only covers what repeats, which is less than people expect. Worth ten minutes.
5. Stop typing the long stuff
Everything above makes typing cheaper. Dictation is the only item on the list that makes there be less of it.
- A day of writing is thousands of key presses
- Said out loud, it is one key held down
- A few hundred presses left for edits you would rather do by hand
The catch is that most dictation leaves you a wall of unpunctuated words with a name spelled wrong, and fixing that is worse for sore hands than typing was. Check what any tool leaves behind.
Free, ten minutes
Sticky Keys and the key repeat settings. Do these today whatever else you decide.
Costs money, helps some
A lighter keyboard, a different mouse. Real, and the same number of presses.
Removes the typing
Dictation, if it lands finished. The only change that moves the count.
What JotMic does about the cleanup
- Punctuation and capitals come from the way you talked
- Ums and false starts are dropped, every other word stays as you said it
- Names you teach it once keep landing right
- It types where your cursor already is, so there is nothing to paste
Dictation software for hand arthritis is the longer version, written for hands rather than settings.
Free to try, no card. A week of email, to see what your hands make of it.
Not medical advice
None of this is medical advice, and a hand therapist will have better ideas about your hands than a software company will. Everything above is about the computer.
Read next
Hand arthritis
The full version, written for the joints rather than the settings.
Hand pain
The short version, whatever is causing it.
Voice commands
Driving menus and apps by voice on a Mac, for the mouse half of the day.
Compared with the other apps
If you have got as far as comparing apps rather than settings, these are the four you will run into.
Questions
What is the easiest keyboard to type on with arthritis?
The one that needs the least force and the least travel — low-profile boards, including most laptop keyboards. Beyond that it is personal: split and tented keyboards help some people a lot and suit others badly, so try before buying.
How do I stop holding down Shift, Ctrl and Command?
Turn on Sticky Keys, in Accessibility settings on both Mac and Windows. It lets you press the modifier and the letter one after the other instead of together.
My key presses keep repeating. Can I fix that?
Yes. Both let you change how long a key is held before it repeats, and how fast. Slowing both stops a slow press turning into fifteen of the same letter.
Is voice typing better than a special keyboard?
They do different things. A better keyboard makes each key press cost less. Dictation removes most of the key presses. If your day is mostly writing, the second one is a much bigger change, and the two work fine together.
Is the dictation built into my computer good enough?
For a sentence here and there, yes, and it is free and already installed. On longer writing it leaves every um in and never learns the names you use, and you fix that at the keyboard.
Do I have to say the punctuation out loud when I dictate?
Not with JotMic. Full stops, commas, question marks and capitals come from the way you talk. Some other tools do want you to say them, which is worth checking before you settle on one.
Can I still type sometimes?
Of course, and most people do. Dictation takes over the long writing — email, notes, documents — and the keyboard keeps the short edits. The aim is fewer key presses, not none.
Does any of this need a diagnosis?
No. Every setting on this page is free and reversible. It is not medical advice — a hand therapist will have better ideas about your hands than a software company will.
Free to try, no card. Set up in two minutes.