Frustrated by a Right Handed World

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

July 18, 2011

I was right-handed until a stroke paralyzed my right side.  Now that my left hand is my dominant hand I've learned the world discriminates against left-handed people.  Switching hand dominance at 58 years old was an eye opener.  The aggravation goes beyond right-handed (1) scissors and (2) can openers.  (3) The shutter button on cameras is always on the right.  When I hold a camera with my left hand a finger often covers the lens when my index finger depresses the shutter button.  (4) Computer labs make sure there is room to maneuver a mouse on the right side, but don't always leave room on the left.  (5)  Left-handed drivers have to reach around or through the steering wheel to put the key in the ignition which is always on the right.  (6) Many credit card machines put the slot you swipe your card through on the right side.  When the slot is on the top, left-handed people have to push the card away from their dominant side unless the card can be swiped in either direction.  The plastic stylus you sign with is frequently attached to the right side with a very short cord.

(7)  Before my stroke my right hand used to close a jar by turning the lid clockwise and the back of my fingers used to get closer to my forearm (see photo on left).  Now that I use my left hand to turn the lid it's my thumb that gets closer to my forearm.  This new wrist position doesn't match 50 years of muscle memory.  It took me three years to stop making a lid tighter when I wanted to loosen it.

Left handers I've talked to say they solve these problems by using their right hand.  The only advantage left-handed people have is the QWERTY layout of a keyboard.  You can type thousands of words on the left side of the keyboard with the the left hand but can type only a few hundred words on the right side with the right hand (Wikipedia.org).  (8) Deciding which hand to write with is only the beginning.  Left-handed people have to decide which hand to use until the day they die.

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Frustrated by a Right Handed World

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