One Handed Keyboard
Mood
supportive
Sentiment
positive
Category
tech
Key topics
accessibility
keyboard
open-source
A GitHub project showcasing a one-handed keyboard design has gained popularity on HN, sparking interest and support from the community.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Very active discussionFirst comment
38m
Peak period
72
Day 1
Avg / period
24.7
Based on 74 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
11/15/2025, 9:44:15 AM
4d ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
11/15/2025, 10:22:35 AM
38m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
72 comments in Day 1
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
11/17/2025, 3:58:38 PM
1d ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
"Yes, just the one thank you."
https://www.contourdesign.com/collection/contour-slidermouse
There's probably something with the position of the hand when you move the mouse as well. At least I seem to be moving mostly the wrist when I use my mouse, meaning that my hand and forearm are not always aligned; without this alignment, I feel there's more strain on the wrist when typing.
It's got a soft cheery non-intrusive sound that I really like compared to the usual louder mechanical keys/switches that I hear in videos.
You can check if you find the switches colors here(it looks like an Akko purple pro, but not quite) https://keeb-finder.com/switches
Whereas rtings has a filtering list that also has sound profiles in the review pages.
(Definitely adding this to my list)
Frogpad: German language one handed keyboard. Unfortunately discontinued http://frogpad.com/
Mirrorboard (my favorite): Intruiging mirror solution that builds upon the assumption that it is easier to access muscle memory from the other hand when you've learned it before https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-ke...
Mistel Barocco fully split Keyboard: Can (and unfortunately must) be programmed without software. Right half is the main keyboard. Left side connects to it, works also in standalone mode but is not programmable then. https://mistelkeyboard.com/products/bd20945a731491407807e80d...
On OS X you can achieve this with Keyb, Karabiner Elements, etc. It's also easy to do with a programmable keyboard with ZMK/QMK. I've set up my Kinesis 360 Pro this way, being symmetrical means I can access every key easily. Hardware support for sticky keys also helps quite a bit.
It's amazing how quickly you adapt. I have to put my mouse to the left of my keyboard and whereas before I was a touch typist, I now have to look.
And I can use a standard keyboard without undue hassle.
It still could be nice to have something optimized, though. If you ever design one, please share it, because I think you’d get more interest than you’d think.
I began to have interest in developing for everyone (primarily for differences for vision, though difference in hearing, memory, learning also) about 13 years ago, and got little support from the small company I worked for. We had a very color-specific interface, because we were space-limited. Then, wouldn’t you know it, our next manager was red-green colorblind, but it didn’t bother her.
I got jaded about it, learning that basically no one cared enough, and that people just get ignored and struggle with their adaptive devices. This still pisses me off, and I was once thinking heavily about applying a job where I could do something about it, but I don’t have the required background.
With AI, there’s beginning to be almost no excuse for someone not to add first-class support for all types of people into their interfaces and process, but people still continue to design like everyone is a twenty-something y.o. with full hearing, 20/15 full color vision, 130 IQ average, and no memory or learning differences or other modalities.
(If someone is interested in taking the site over and bringing it up to date, please open an issue.)
https://www.maltron.com/store/p19/Maltron_Single_Hand_Keyboa...
Microwriter devices produced ASCII directly.
But the fundamental problem with one-handed keyboards is that as soon as you only have one hand, you step into specialisation.
People's hands and one-hand abilities are actually quite variable. People who have never had two hands have different hand agility to people who lose a hand in adulthood, for example.
Two-handed keyboards and two-handed typing masks so much of this variability, because you can be a fast and efficient typist even with your hands straying across the keyboard and using only two or three fingers on each hand (say, two on non-dominant hand, two and thumb on dominant).
One-handed keyboards, by contrast, need to be more optimised for individual one-handed typists when any economy of scale is already difficult to achieve.
i've been using such a keyboard for two decades.
What would have made it easier is if it could infer the right key like an autocorrect
My left hand is the one which has suffered the most the many hours of using a keyboard over the last +-25 years. While the right hand has the occasional break from the keyboard when using the mouse, the left hand is constantly glued to the keyboard.
It also has a much tougher job - all the cmd, ctrl, alt and shift + combinations are mostly done using the left hand - e.g. on Mac you cannot cmd+shift+ select text with the arrows - you must use the left hand - so it ends up doing so much more work.
I wonder if there are other people with the same problem. My right hand never hurts after many hours of computer work - but the left hand does. It hurts even now that I am typing and I haven't even spent more than an hour doing it.
>It also has a much tougher job - all the cmd, ctrl, alt and shift + combinations are mostly done using the left hand
I use a Glove80 as my daily driver right now, although the price tag to build quality ratio is not amazing, so idk if I would recommend it particularly. But there's a massive world of ergo keyboards out there--surely the right one for you exists somewhere!
Essentially, hold down a thumb key and WASD (well, ESDF) moves the mouse.
Does charachorder support Dvorak-like layout mentally? Not a 1-1 but something similar? Like vowels on left hand?
It's a shit demo from college and I always wanted to share the concept but never made it presentable.
Good luck to these manufacturers who serve the niche with such a passion. It needs a lion share of compassion to be able to design this kind of products for handicapped people.
https://www.youtube.com/@HTXStudio/videos
I love the one about the automated trash cans.
This reminds me how I once spend months trying to track down a Frogpad for a cyberpunk-inspired wearable computing project. I found one on eBay but got outbid at the last second. It still hurts a little.
PS: the first step towards feeling why such research is so important is when you start customizing productivity shortcuts on your existing keyboard. Then you understand that the input device in front of you can be more than a stupid typewriter. From there you start interrogating your interaction with machines. [and then you are addict, and you end up designing your own device :)]
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