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Comment by zepto | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have any recommendations for one handed keyboards that are practical?

It's probably even more expensive, but Maltron make one-handed sculpted keyboards. Depending where you live, if you have an appropriate disability, your employer might buy it for you. Otherwise, they do show up on eBay fairly regularly.

(I have never even seen one, but I've seen strong online recommendations for them from people who can only use one arm.)

Another option would be left/right handed Dvorak, which is built-in on many OSs, or any other single-handed layout on a programmable keyboard.

https://www.maltron.com/store/p19/Maltron_Single_Hand_Keyboa...

Maltron looks and is amazing from what I hear.

I’m looking for something cheaper and smaller that can be used easily for setting up new machines etc. without needing to lug around a huge device.

Maybe either one half of a large ergonomic keyboard (with thumb buttons)[1], or a large grid of keys like [2] (but I'm not sure how programmable that is).

If I lost the use of one hand, I'd modify one of the ergonomic open source keyboards to have an eighth column, and... well, ask someone to make it for me. (One handed soldering? No...) I'd then set the Dvorak one-handed layout, which has 8 columns of letters, plus more of punctuation and numbers. The extra keys would be accessed by first pressing a modifier thumb-key, or by activating the "Caps" Lock for the number/punctuation layer.

Alternatively, I might stick with one of the existing designs (Diverge 4?) and move the Q, Z and X keys onto the secondary layer. (Though I would keep Z if my name were Zepto.)

With a keyboard running QMK[3], you can essentially program it however you like. A "Shift" key can be sticky (press shift, then the letter). A modifier key can select a different layer of keys, e.g. numbers and punctuation. A different modifier key could be a lock for that layer.

Pressing two adjacent keys simultaneously (e.g. JK on a Qwerty board) could be "enter" or "space". Or if there are keys it is practical to hold down, you can change the function depending whether it's held down or pressed (e.g. Enter or Ctrl).

Here's one possibility using the Diverge 4 right half: http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/5ebe720a10b353...

[1] http://xahlee.info/kbd/diy_keyboards_index.html "Ergodox variations" (some are available preassembled)

[2] http://xahlee.info/kbd/ly092_mini_keyboard.html

[3] https://docs.qmk.fm/

You could theoretically set up an Ergodox for one hand use (or any similar fully programmable split keyboard). There are smaller split programmable keyboards too if size is an issue. You would have to make generous use of layers.

Some people say wonders about the twiddler but I know nothing of it.

The only one handed keyboard I know of is the one made by matias.

Some people have claimed its pretty good. The company claims you can learn to type 80 WPM with one hand. They are super expensive because they were designed specifically for people that have only 1 hand, but there are some people interested in just using a single hand to type so they can work more efficiently with a mouse.

However, that might not be a great idea. Some two-handed keyboard reviewers have tried it out and at least one of them thinks its an absolutely horrifying device that he can't imagine anyone learning to type well on. He seemed to think it developed a reputation as being a good one handed computer simply because there aren't any other options.

I bought that keyboard back when it was $95 not $495. The principle is that holding down the spacebar accesses the mirror half that's not present. I didn't believe this, so I taught myself Dvorak on the half keyboard while continuing to use Qwerty on other keyboards. Then one day I got curious. Like that dream where you walk up to a piano and can just play, my other hand had learned its mirror image role, and I could immediately type Dvorak with both hands. Our brains really are wired this way. One could program this on any half of a two piece keyboard that supports QMK or similar.

See this review by Chyrosan of the "Maltron" which was also made for one-handed people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkGpFeUQ49Y

Which imo currently makes the best tactile dampened mechanical switches as well. Their quiet click switch is silent and tactile, with actually solid tactility (as opposed to just about every other tactile switch out there).

People have had some reliability issues though, so it's a mixed bag. They have recently gotten some new tooling, so hopefully they will start making keyboards that look somewhat not like a shit 90s keyboard.

Yeah, I love their switches but blew three of them in two years which is pretty unacceptable. I’ve used cherries far longer and never had that problem.

I still hope they can fix their issues. I am not paying 150 bucks for a keyboard that might stop working properly without reason. Then I much rather get a high quality rubber dome board. The tactility in those is generally fine (at least better than cherry MX brown), even though I am no fan of having to bottom out.

I am more interested in the newest addition to the unicomp portfolio. The "new model m" and their upcoming TKL boards seem like something I will like :)

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