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Dear Jeff and John,
Following up on your dialog about ideal monitor height:
I share your emphasis on the importance of maintaining neutral cervical
posture and considering the resting level of the eyes. However, speaking
as a heavy computer user and more recently also a reluctant wearer of
bifocals, I am seriously considering doing some radical surgery on my desk:
cut a large hole on the desktop, flip the monitor on its back and bury it
so that the screen is contained in the plane of the desktop (I'll probably
put glass over it for safety and convenience). I am inclined to do this
for two reasons:
1. The top of the screen of my 19" monitor is already slightly below eye
level, but with my (large reading area) bifocals on only the bottom half of
the screen is in focus at neutral head and neck posture. I have to crank
my head back to read near the top of the screen.
2. If computers are meant to substitute for paperwork, why not place the
screen where the paperwork would normally go?
I imagine that this alternative has been raised before, and there may be
good data on this by now. I once saw a peculiar looking desk at a
furniture store that applied this concept, but it also included other,
needless features that made it very expensive.
I am ultimately an experimentalist but, since you have opened up the
discussion, I look forward to receiving erudite advise before I bring the
jigsaw to the office!
Thank you for your help,
Andy Hoffer
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J.A. Hoffer, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, School of Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, CANADA
Tel: (604) 291 3141 FAX: (604) 291 3040 e-mail:hoffer@sfu.ca
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Following up on your dialog about ideal monitor height:
I share your emphasis on the importance of maintaining neutral cervical
posture and considering the resting level of the eyes. However, speaking
as a heavy computer user and more recently also a reluctant wearer of
bifocals, I am seriously considering doing some radical surgery on my desk:
cut a large hole on the desktop, flip the monitor on its back and bury it
so that the screen is contained in the plane of the desktop (I'll probably
put glass over it for safety and convenience). I am inclined to do this
for two reasons:
1. The top of the screen of my 19" monitor is already slightly below eye
level, but with my (large reading area) bifocals on only the bottom half of
the screen is in focus at neutral head and neck posture. I have to crank
my head back to read near the top of the screen.
2. If computers are meant to substitute for paperwork, why not place the
screen where the paperwork would normally go?
I imagine that this alternative has been raised before, and there may be
good data on this by now. I once saw a peculiar looking desk at a
furniture store that applied this concept, but it also included other,
needless features that made it very expensive.
I am ultimately an experimentalist but, since you have opened up the
discussion, I look forward to receiving erudite advise before I bring the
jigsaw to the office!
Thank you for your help,
Andy Hoffer
-----------------------------------------------------------------
J.A. Hoffer, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, School of Kinesiology
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, CANADA
Tel: (604) 291 3141 FAX: (604) 291 3040 e-mail:hoffer@sfu.ca
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