Keyboard enabled

I have always had trouble writing with a pen or pencil. It feels awkward. Sometimes my hand develops such an unbearable cramp when holding the writing implement that I have to drop it and massage my palm. It’s the same quality of unbearable as “too hot to hold” although absolutely nothing to do with heat.

I'm also far too slow at handwriting. Even to this day if I have to make notes by hand I end up missing out letters or even whole words as my brain races ahead of my right hand and I end up losing all sense of what I am trying to record.

What caused this? At first I put it down to effectively skipping being taught longhand (or “joined up writing” as we then called it) at school.?Due to a family house move I left my old primary school the year before we learnt it only to arrive at my new one to discover that they'd learnt it the year before.

Even now I find printing far easier and clearer; something about the act of doing so makes it feel like I’m?drawing?the letters and drawing is something that I've always been able to cope with. I was even good at it sometimes.

Unfortunately the messiness of my hand writing and how slow I was were contributory factors to the "disappointment" often expressed at my scholarly efforts, and are part of why I never did that well academically.

The majority of teachers equated writing neatly with both effort and perhaps most unfairly, intelligence. There were a few notable exceptions of course — one chemistry teacher was so impressed with a piece of work I’d written that it was given a special award which meant the headmaster had to give it a cursory glance and sign it at the end. I still recall the confusion and distaste on the head's face when he saw my handwriting (and the fact that I’d even had to scribble an entire line out due to the words getting in a tangle).

You could almost read ‘...and the chemistry teacher thought this was GOOD?’ in his expression alone.

In retrospect I am certain that there was a lot more to the situation than having missed out on a few lessons in primary school. With the benefit of hindsight my issues sound a lot like a variety of motor clumsiness which makes sense when you consider how bad I also was at ball games due to poor hand-eye co-ordination. They also have symptoms in common with dysgraphia.

This makes even more sense given that both of these often co-occur with autism — which I have been diagnosed for.

As such, once typewriters and then computers became far more commonplace I discovered that I had abruptly gained the ability to express myself in writing quickly and easily. I had stumbled upon an assistive technology that helped me overcome my disability (even though I hadn’t recognised it as such at the time). It was as if the floodgates of expression had been opened in my brain and I was finally able to reach my full potential.

So all's well that ends well?

Unfortunately not. As time went on it became clear that many people?still?insisted on things being handwritten — or at the very least looked disapprovingly upon any keyboard-first writing.

For example the practice of Morning Pages from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is described as 'three pages of longhand stream of consciousness writing done first thing in the morning'. They are indeed a very effective way of getting the creative juices flowing but when I've mentioned to people that I do them onscreen the reaction is often a very negative one. I have been told that doing it via keyboard doesn’t count and doesn't tap into my creative potential.

Published authors are often guilty of fetishising the longhand first draft of their writing when offering guidance to students or budding writers. Handwriting is spoken about as more organic, natural and real. A more genuinely creative endeavour than all that pecking at keyboards which is looked upon as an unfortunate necessity.

I suspect that there are a number of genuine reasons behind this attitude. For a start, for someone growing up before the age of the keyboard and the computer the use of such tools was seen as a skill, a luxury, something which somehow required much more effort and resource than simple pen and paper.

One clear instance of this was at the first office job I had in London. At one point the big boss sent a memo round which asked all members of staff to write something in reply which he insisted "should be in your own hand".

I am sure there was no malice intended here. In his head it would be far too much hassle if everyone had to type and then print out their replies. He was trying to save time.

Another reason handwriting might still be insisted upon?is also one I can understand. Given the way modern devices allow you to do so much, it's no wonder that people running training courses or workshops might insist upon people using pen and paper during exercises. I'm sure there's nothing more irritating than someone reading their email or checking social media when they're supposed to be making notes.

However, such an insistence is unfair on people with the same issues as me — it’s discrimination; an accessibility issue. Thankfully it's one which is becoming far less common these days.

On a personal level the keyboard is probably one of the most important assistive technologies I’ve?used. Please don’t restrict my access to it because of misguided ideas of creativity or efficiency.

#accessibility #dysgraphia #neurodivergence