Seven Days Left: Ergonomic discrimination

This is the sixth of seven items in seven days on left handedness.

Left Handedness and Ergonomic Discrimination

Ergonomic discrimination is invisible and is everywhere.  Amongst human-made things, there is not a single part of daily life that is not designed specifically for right handed people.


Stationery

• Pens

Ball point pens are designed to be pulled.  When left handed people use ball point pens, they jam while being pushed.

Many offices and places of business (e.g. banks) place pens only on the right side of the counter, with only enough slack for a right handed person to hold it.  Are they too poor to afford two pens per desk?

In countries with languages written right-to-left (e.g. arabic, hebrew), fountain pens are preferred over ball point pens, though arabic writers usually use bamboo for calligraphy.  I have encouraged several of my left handed students to start writing with fountain pens and they enjoy it.

• Rulers

Most rulers are numbered left to right, made for right handed people to draw lines and measure.  Left handed people must turn the ruler upside down or measure counting backward, increasing the chance of mistakes.  Right to left rulers are only sold online.

• Binders

Binders are agony for anyone left handed, especially for children who are forced to write with the holes on the left.  (I wrote "back to front" in my binders after teachers gave up trying.)  Most people take the paper out and write, then put it back in.

• Spiral ringed notepads

Notepads are different than binders in that they can not be used "back to front" as right handed people would call it.  They are designed so that the "back cover" cannot be turned, only the "front".  Specialized notebooks that open to the right can be purchased online, but at great expense (usually US$5-7 per 60 page book).

• Scissors

Left handed scissors are usually the most easily found in stores, though generally only children's scissors.

Scissors are designed so you can see what you are cutting - the front blade is underneath, and the back blade is behind.  When I am forced to use right handed scissors, I have to turn the blades toward my right and look down at the back side.  Very awkward.

• Clipboards

You might be tempted to say, "Where's the problem, just fold the left side behind."  And what if I want to read from papers in the left side?  Your left arm is covering them.  Take the paper out?  Then how do you protect the paper, what's the point of the left side pocket?  What if I don't want the annoyance of the pen holder under my hand?

If I had a dollar for every time someone blindly said, "Sign here" with the clipboard's clip on the left and me holding the pen in my left, I could...well, buy a new mountain bike.  Some of those who do this actually resist or get upset when I move or remove the paper so that I can write.  Why?  Clipboards aren't nailed down, and the paper can be put back.

Furniture

• School desks

Most schools, colleges and universities still purchase desks almost solely for right handed people.  If they do purchase left handed desks, it is usually an insufficient number for students' needs.

Tools and Equipment

Hammer and crowbars are likely the only hand-neutral tools.  Almost all industrial machinery is designed exclusively for the right hand.  Some examples:

• hand held tools (circular saw, chainsaws, drills)
• bench tools (drill press, planer, table saw - notice where the user stands and which direction you push?)

Even drafting tools and tables, and tape measures are almost entirely right handed.  If left handed people are forced to use equipment designed for the wrong hand, they will inevitably produce lower quality work because they cannot be as precise in their motor skills.


Electronics, Appliances and Devices

All electronics, appliances and devices in everyday life are designed solely for right handed people.  Face any of these, and tell me which of these machines is easier to use with the left hand (hint: none of them).

• ATM, bank machines
• cell phones
• tablet computers and touch screens
• kiosks
• entrance turnstiles and/or subway and train gates 
• landline telephones (the cord is on the left, leaving the right hand free to operate buttons and write)
• old televisions with dials (thankfully now passé)
• radios, both AM/FM/shortwave and two-way
• microwave ovens
• countertop and toaster ovens

That's just a partial list, to keep this short.

Kitchenware

Good luck finding a knife that can be used left handed without paying through the nose for one online.  The bevel on most blades is like "A" in the picture below.  Cutting straight with the right hand is easy, with the left almost impossible.  "C" is designed to be held with the left, making straight cuts easy.

(When using a knife and fork, I hold the knife in the right hand.  When I cook, my carving, paring or bread knife in is my left.  I can afford to buy specialy knives, many people can't.)

The same goes for spatulas, ladles, can openers (including the P-38 style), and many other commonly used kitchen items.

Here's a funny happenstance: a glass measuring cup.  It was designed so the imperial side will be closest to right handed people, metric on the other side.  (Another sign that Americans don't want to go metric.)  As it turns out, this is perfect.

Do any companies cater to left handed users?

Yes, but these are usually limited to high priced items or where there is a great demand, including some by right handed people.  The three most common left handed products are:

• Musical instruments

The most readily available left handed instruments are guitars and bass guitars.  Myself, I don't see the point - the able hand should be used for fretting, not strumming (see: Mark Knopfler, Steve Morse, Robert Fripp, Johnny Winter, et al).  There may be other extreme examples, but for the most part, instruments are two handed (most notably, percussion instruments). Interestingly, no one builds violins to be played the opposite way.

That said, most two handed instruments favour one hand.  For example, a piano's treble keys are played by the right hand and are more important, while a saxophone, clarinet or flute depend heavily on the left hand.  Many instruments cannot be converted and are played either strictly right handed (trumpet, trombone, tuba) or left handed (French horn).

• Sporting goods 

Some sports value and desire left handed players, so left handed equipment is often readily available and affordable.

Baseball is a game of geometry where left handed players are invaluable.  A left at first base faces home plate when catching a ball, and teams wants half their pitchers to be lefties.  The handedness of outfielders doesn't matter, but you will never see a left handed catcher and rarely at second, third or shortshop.

Many right handers intentionally learn to hit left handed because hitting left handed is advantageous.  After swinging the bat, a right hander faces third base.  A left handed hitter faces first base and is six feet closer.  Additionally, lefties hit to right field, away from second, third and home, resulting in fewer outs.  Righties hit to left field where there are more players and more putting players out at second and third is easier.

Hockey values left handed players at all skating positions.  Take left wing for example: a left handed winger can pass to the centre accurately, but a right handed winger has a good shooting angle for scoring goals.  This applies to all five skating positions - teams value talent, handedness is irrelevant.

Coaches often try to prevent left handers from being goaltenders, though that's probably more to do with the availability of equipment rather than ability.  Former NHL left handed goalies include hall of fame players (Grant Fuhr, Tony Esposito) plus many who played a decade or longer and won major NHL and international trophies (Roger Crozier, Tomas Vokoun, Roman Turek, Tom Barrasso, among others).


North American football coaches intentionally try to prevent left handed players from becoming quarterbacks.  And yet amongst NFL quarterbacks, two left handers are in the hall of fame out of less than forty in the NFL's history (~6%).  There are only 32 right handed quarterbacks in the NFL's hall of fame, out of almost 1000 players (~3%).  (I no longer watch football at any level because of the off-field violence by its players and other issues like CTE.  It is long past time for the game to be banned.)

Some teams sports do not need specialized equipment.  Basketball has no bias in equipment, but definitely desires players who can use the left or both because of positions and defending.  Many soccer/football players are left or right footed which makes a big difference in passing - watch Japan's #5, Yuto Nagatomo.  (I'm left handed but right footed.  Go figure.)

In sports where individuals compete one-on-one (e.g. racquet sports, combat sports), left handers have an advtantage because of their rarity.  Right handed opponents rarely face left handed people, while left handers face them all the time.  And the opposite handedness means balls or combat strikes come towards the right hander's attacking side, not their defensive side.

• Firearms 

Firearms designed or altered for left handed use usually involve ejecting bullet casings to the left side, away from the shooter.  (No, I am not going to provide links for ammosexuals to look at.)

In Conclusion....

Isn't 10% enough of the market for corporations to accomodate people?  Especially when it is much more expensive and less profitable to install or purchase things used by a much smaller percentage of the population (e.g. wheelchair accessible ramps on buildings, sidewalks, buses, and even a playground swing; braille written on objects; floor and sidewalk tiling for the blind)?

No, being left handed is not a disability, nor is there any overt discrimination by manufacturers.  But one can accurately describe this as thoughtlessness, as arrogance and a lack of consideration.  Other examples of such thoughtlessness (and with a larger market, 50% of humans) are car manufacturers and the pharmaceutical industry.  The front seats and seat belts of cars are still built for adult males, which makes it difficult for women to drive and puts their safety at risk.  And drugs are tested only on men, leaving women to face unexpected side effects and drug companies falsely claiming their products aren't at fault.

Saturday, part 7: Left Handedness - Who's Who, and What's What

Routinely Abused: The nastiness of gymnastics

Gymnastics is an ugly sport.

It's bad enough that many young women gymnasts are mentally and physically abused, many ending up with anorexia, bulimia and depression. It's bad enough that it's sexualized and sexist, male uniforms designed to highlight the arms and shoulders, female uniforms the legs and crotch.

But now it comes to light that the US gymnastics program is as full of sexual abusers as the catholic cult, and those who run the US gymnastics program are just as willing to cover up and protect those who rape young girls.  And considering that gymnastics wants only teenage girls, that "nineteen is too old", it says a lot about the mentalities of those in charge.

Dave Hannigan: Sinister story lies hidden beneath a sport that enthrals America

In October, 1998, USA Gymnastics received a fax regarding a coach named Bill McCabe. Over six pages, Florida gym owner Jan Giunipero outlined a litany of disturbing allegations made against McCabe at nine different facilities and urged that parents and children be made aware of his proclivities. One year later, Dan Dickey, another gym owner, wrote to USA Gymnastics about an incident involving McCabe and a 15-year-old cheerleader and stated that he should be “locked in a cage before someone is raped”. Around that time, McCabe began regularly abusing at least one under-age gymnast in his charge. 

[...]

The baffling failure to act on the information furnished to them about McCabe (on four different occasions by different people), was apparently par for the course with USA Gymnastics when it came to abusive coaches. That is the only conclusion to be drawn from a lengthy and thorough investigation by the Indianapolis Star, the largest newspaper in Indiana where the sport is headquartered. For those who have lived through the Catholic Church and USA and Irish swimming debacles, the narrative is all too depressingly familiar. 

Although USA Gymnastics refused to confirm how many allegations it receives annually, the Indianapolis Star learned the governing body has complaint dossiers on over 50 coaches that it, literally, keeps in a drawer. The newspaper unearthed evidence of four particular cases (including one former national coach of the year) that followed the same troubling pattern. Accusations were allowed to gather dust for years as at least 14 underage gymnasts were abused.

People Thirst: Slave labourers are dying in 50°C heat

Imagine if religious fanatics in predominantly catholic countries like Ireland, Poland or Italy started physically assaulting non-catholics - for example, muslims - who were eating meat on "good friday" (or any Friday, as catholics used to ban).  Imagine if the catholics demanded laws to arrest and punish or imprison people who do eat meat on those days. 

Would you defend the creation of religious laws where the majority imposed their religious practices upon minorities who don't belong to that religion?  (Well, fanatical christians in the US would, so that's not a good place for an example.)  If it's wrong in one place, it's wrong everywhere.


Not eating meat won't kill anybody, but NOT being allowed to drink water will kill people who are forced to perform hard manual labour in 50-60°C heat (120-140°F for Americans). 

In 2016, ramadan is in June.  This is the hottest month of the year at the equator, and in most predominantly muslim Middle Eastern and North African countries, temperatures are high enough to kill people who are drinking water and not doing physical labour. 

‘Warning’ for non-Muslims caught eating in public during Ramadan

Saudi labourers still working in 55°C temperatures

Death toll among Qatar’s 2022 World Cup workers revealed

North Koreans working as ‘state-sponsored slaves’ in Qatar

Forcing people to work in 50-60°C temperatures while preventing them from drinking water is NOT "respecting culture".  It is a human rights abuse by a theocratic majority, endangering the lives of a powerless minority. 

People should have the freedom to practice their religion, what they don't have is the right to expect non-adherents to obey the religion of the majority.  But as with the catholics of the past (who did physically violate those who didn't follow catholic rules) muslim countries have no hesitation about ramadaning it down your throat.  Or rather, about preventing water going down your throat.

Abuse Unbridled: Two horses were mutilated and killed for people's entertainment

On Saturday May 21, the gambling event and fashion show for the obscenely wealthy - known as "The Preakness" - took place.  During the "race", two abused horse fell and were injured.  Instead of attempting to medically tend to the horses and save their lives, the financial decision to save money was made and the horses were killed.  No doubt they already had semen from the horses so they could breed the next generation.

I hope you enjoyed your bloodsport.  Did they also "euthanize" the jockey who broke his collarbone in the fall?

Circuses are under pressure to stop using animals for human entertainment.  Animals in circuses are subjected to abuse, to violence and mistreatment, to poor health and living conditions.  Most of the public oppose it and circus numbers are declining.  Even some in the corproate media are speaking out against animals in the circus. 

But when it comes to horses owned by the rich for gambling and entertainment, a different standard applies.  As we have seen in multiple professional sports (e.g. basketball, golf, footbal, etc.) don't dare to criticize the wealthy or you will be banned from the sports venues.  Breaking scandals is unacceptable - you can only report on repulsive behaviour and actions after they are publicly known (e.g. Donald Sterling, Tiger Woods), not while their dirty secrets are still behind closed doors.

Some circuses have switched to human-only displays and shows, and racing can do the same.  Keirin racing in Japan is popular and is a sport on which there is legal gambling.  (Keirin racing became a popular replacement for horse racing because of Japan's limited land space.)  Unlike animals, humans have the ability to say "no" and the willpower to say "yes" and push themselves to their physical limit.  There is no abuse when there is a choice.

Death Sports: Football player "retires" because of injuries

Ricardo Lockette didn't "retire", he is barely alive.  Even if his injuries heal, he may be permanently disabled and endure long term medical problems.  And the NFL won't contribute a dime to help him.

The self-centred and self-aggrandizing Tom Brady ignorantly said about concussions the other day, "It's just part of life".  Yeah, right, as much as gunshots are a part of life - they only endanger you if you live in a country where such dangerous and reckless behaviour without accountability is considered a "right" and something to aspire to.  And the majority of that country ignorantly celebrate the worship of such behaviour.

Terrible neck injury forces Seahawks WR Ricardo Lockette to retire

[...]

The hit from Dallas Cowboys safety Jeff Heath while Lockette covered a punt was so bad, Lockette said earlier this year he could have died. 

"The doctor told me that pretty much my skull, all the muscles, all the ligaments that connect my vertebrae and the cartilage between that -- so the cartilage is out, the ligaments torn. He said if I would have stood up then, the weight of my head, left, right, front, back, I would have died," Lockette said in March, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Death Sports: Pop Warner football kills 18 year old kid

Football is a dying sport, and a sport that kills.  The only question is how many people will be killed before the game dies.  How many is not just players, but also children, girlfriends and wives killed by players with dementia, and people endangered and killed by the acts of players and former players (e.g. Rob Bironas).

People who put their children into football are no better than people who shake babies.

Paralyzed youth football player who settled with Pop Warner dies at 18

Donnovan Hill, the paralyzed former youth football player who reached an unprecedented seven-figure settlement with Pop Warner football, died Wednesday after complications during surgery related to managing his health, his mother, Crystal Dixon, said (via ESPN.com).

He was 18.

In 2011, Hill was paralyzed while making a tackle in a Pop Warner game in Lakewood, Calif. His injury and subsequent lawsuit, in which he claimed his coaches promoted a head-first tackling technique, ignited the discussion over player safety in youth football in general and the vulnerability families of severely injured players face.

The IOC Games: South Korea's fascist government rounded up and imprisoned homeless people and pro-democracy activists

An investigative journalist has reported that during the 1980s the South Korean government rounded up and imprisoned homeless and poor people (falsely labelled "vagrants" to dehumanize them) in the years leading up to the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.  During their captivity, these people (men, women and children) were subjected to abuses like beatings, slave labour, starvation, torture, rape and murder.

South Korea was still a US-backed (and armed) fascist government in 1981 when the 1988 Olympic bid was awarded.  That was only a year after the May 27th massacre of as many as 2000 pro-democracy protesters by the military (the government claims only 200-300, the families say differently).  In 1985, the torture and murder of a university student became the rallying point, leaving to the South Korean fascist regime giving up power in 1987.

That means many of the abuses of the homeless and poor continued after South Korea had allegedly become a free country.

South Korea covered up mass abuse, killings of 'vagrants'

In 1975, dictator President Park Chung-hee, father of current President Park Geun-hye, issued a directive to police and local officials to "purify" city streets of vagrants. Police officers, assisted by shop owners, rounded up panhandlers, small-time street merchants selling gum and trinkets, the disabled, lost or unattended children, and dissidents, including a college student who'd been holding anti-government leaflets.
They ended up as prisoners at 36 nationwide facilities. By 1986, the number of inmates had jumped over five years from 8,600 to more than 16,000, according to government documents obtained by AP.

Nearly 4,000 were at Brothers. But about 90 percent of them didn't even meet the government's definition of "vagrant" and therefore shouldn't have been confined there, former prosecutor Kim Yong Won told the AP, based on Brothers' records and interviews compiled before government officials ended his investigation.

Equally appalling, the current South Korean govenment is showing obscene hypocrisy and duplicity.  They have demanded for decades that Japan pay reparations to Korea's "comfort women", women who were forcibly held in brothels and raped by Japanese soldiers during World War II, more than seventy years ago.  And yet now that same South Korean government refuses to investigate and hold accountable those who participated in the imprisonment and abuses of their own citizens less than forty years ago.


One of those responsible was Park Chung-hee, South Korean dictator from 1962-1979, and the father of current South Korean president Park Geun-hye.