What Are Some Products/Things You Wish They'd Make for Left-Handed People?

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HealthAndHappiness

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2022
10,567
4,490
113
Almost Heaven West Virginia
#21
Hey Everyone,

I used to work in an office with a co-worker I'll call Sara. We got along well, and since I'm right-handed and Sara was left-handed, I would say things such ask:

* "Here you go, Sara -- I saved the left-handed stapler just for you!"

* "Thank goodness for these left-handed paperclips!"

* And if something was sitting on the right side of our desks, I'd put it on the left side and say, "Look Sara, this pen was right-handed, but I've made it left-handed - just for you!" :cool:

Now don't you worry, Sara had a wit sharper than cut glass, so not a day passed where I didn't get verbally smacked down -- but that was a big part of the fun. :ROFL:

I actually have several family members who are left-handed and have often lamented the difficulty of living in a right-handed world. In fact, the manager where Sara and I worked was left-handed, and he told us about a teacher who smacked his left hand with a ruler every time he tried to write with it. :cry:

One of my family members and I deal with a lot of paper records, and I was telling him how much I liked the Wite-Out Correction Tape as opposed to the liquid, which I find always turns into a goopy mess:



But my family member demonstrated that because the design is strictly "right-handed" (works only when pulling the tape from left to right,) he has to hold it in a very awkward position, can never get it to lie smoothly, and has problems pulling it evenly across the paper.

This made me think about all the inconveniences left-handed people have to deal with from day to day.

I love old-fashioned analog writing supplies, and was fascinated when I saw a video about spiral notebooks specifically designed for lefties. The coils are placed on the right side of the paper instead of on the left (like we're used to seeing for righties):






If I would have been a parent with a left-handed child, I would have definitely bought these.

How about the rest of you?

* Are you left-handed, or do you know people who are? Were you or the people you know punished for using your left hand? :(

* What are the worst inconveniences of living in a right-handed world?

* What are some products/things you wish were specifically designed for left-handed people?


Let's all put our hands together (no matter which one is dominant,) and show all our lefties a little extra love. :)

I'm not a Lefty, but I can feel their pain. As a student and even as a teacher, I've had my knuckles smacked real hard with a stick that was over 2 feet long.
It was the hazards of the profession.
Those were used so we didn't get hurt! 😄

I trained my students to start with their dominant hand when doing a technique and then switch hands so they would become ambidextrous at least for what we were doing. It was a labor of love because they didn't pay me enough to do it for the money.
You might say that I was exactly the opposite of those mean teachers that strike Left hands.
 

seoulsearch

OutWrite Trouble
May 23, 2009
16,673
5,587
113
#22
Video games could use a standardized left-handed template for controls that you can switch to with one click. Right now keyboard plus mouse gameplay is definitely formatted for right-handed people.

WASD moves you forward or up, left, down or back, right. E usually interacts with stuff. Left shift runs, space bar jumps. Lots of other stuff too, common gameplay mechanics that are usually mapped to certain buttons, but they are always laid out so you can use your left hand for the keyboard and your right hand for the mouse.

(Speaking of which, don't get me started on left-handed mouse. If you are left-handed you can either get used to using your right hand or get used to not being able to use the best gaming mouse. But I understand economies of scale and why it is impractical for high-end gaming mouse companies to make left-handed mice for a small fraction of the population.)

Sure you can remap controls on almost all games these days. You can assign IJKL to move you up, left, down and right. But that's a lot of controls to remap! Take any random 3D space shooter for example:
Move forward
Move back
Strafe left
Strafe right
Roll left
Roll right
Select nearest Target
Select next target
Select different primary weapon
Select different secondary weapon
Interact with object
Divert power to shields
Divert power to engines
Divert power to weapons
Toggle Shields on off
Toggle cloak on off
Not to mention random other things like communicating with your squad to focus on my target, protect this vessel, form on me...

Most of us can just jump right into a game and start playing. Left-handed people either have to play right handed, play with a controller (bleh!) or spend a good little bit remapping controls.

It would be so simple to develop a standardized left-handed template for controls. We should have done this two decades ago. Maybe three.
Not being a video game person, I had never thought about this before!

I'm in a financial Discord chat with a lot of young guys -- some of whom enter gaming tournaments. I wonder if a leftie has to work twice as hard to be able to compete with his/her rightie counterparts...

I'd really love to ask them but I'm not really part of the group -- I just listen -- and I don't want to be the old lady asking strange questions, lest I be seen as a creeper.
 

Billyd

Senior Member
May 8, 2014
5,245
1,660
113
#23
Five of the last seven presidents were left handed, and eight presidents in total were known to be left landed. There is limited data available to positively identify lefties prior to 1900.
 

Subhumanoidal

Well-known member
Sep 17, 2018
4,094
3,196
113
#25
According to my parents I was born ambidextrous, but they pushed me to be a lefty. No idea why.
Notebooks and spiral notebooks were definitely a hassle when I was in school. But I eventually figured out to simply write with my hand under what I was writing. That way it kept my hand off of the spirals.
I seemed to have a good teacher when I was learning to write, so a lot of common problems lefties face while writing didn't really bother me. She taught me how to write from underneath so as to not smudge when I wrote.
Beyond that I don't always go lefty. When I played drums I did so right handed. When I tried guitar I did right handed. No problems. But if I shoot a basketball it's left handed.
Thinking about it now it seems I go left when I'm able and if not able I go right, but with no trouble. But if I write right handed it looks bad and feels off.
Baseball was the big problem for me. Neither hand felt correct no matter which hand had the glove on.
Fortunately I was never big into sports. I suck at them anyways, so it hasn't really been an issue since I got out of school.
Ah. I also game on mouse and keyboard right handed, no problem. Weird.
 
Apr 29, 2012
1,194
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#26
I'm a retired meat cutter and trained lots of guys in the trade. When a trainee complained that he couldn't get his knife sharp I'd just look at the knife and explain "No wonder, you're using a left handed knife." Then I'd just smile and chuckle to myself as he searched for a left handed knife.
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
27,677
9,612
113
#27
I'm a retired meat cutter and trained lots of guys in the trade. When a trainee complained that he couldn't get his knife sharp I'd just look at the knife and explain "No wonder, you're using a left handed knife." Then I'd just smile and chuckle to myself as he searched for a left handed knife.
No joke! When they were building a cabinet shop I used to w*rk at (closed now, may it rust in peace) the daughter of the owner was not very good at hitting a nail with a hammer. They told her she was using a left handed hammer and needed to find a right handed hammer. She actually believed them and went off looking for one.

They didn't mention it when I was w*rking there, but she told the story on herself years after it happened, to demonstrate how little she knew when she started in this cabinet business.
 
Apr 29, 2012
1,194
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#28
For plumbers it's the left handed pipe wrench.
 

Dino246

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2015
25,587
13,857
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#30
I’m left handed but life has made me ambidextrous. It’s kinda nice being able to use both hands to whatever lol.
Being partially ambidextrous is also helpful in table tennis and billiards. It messes with people's heads.
 

Mii

Well-known member
Mar 23, 2019
2,082
1,330
113
#31
Yet another great thread thanks!

I'll admit that I rarely focus on "left-handedness" except for in terms of skills or "internal constitution". As a metaphor it's fairly effective...definitely some application to our "walks" as well. So, while I am right-handed, I occasionally focus on using my left hand but only as a mental exercise or little used "substitute".

It probably is good for the brain to utilize one's non-dominant hand (like juggling)... I can't say how much I appreciate the thread for that because I'm frequently looking for ways to take advantage of neuroplasticity. For me, it's about maximization and combating other "deleterious" effects but if someone has had a stroke, has neuropathy, or even just general aging then these things can be quite useful.

I also tend to use the language metaphor similarly. Car repairs, and car mechanics in general, are something like a fourth language to me...with a LOT of time and effort, it is possible that it could become a third language but I won't ever be exactly "fluent" in it. I could also say that I'm a left-handed mechanic or sometimes "two" left hands.

Hopefully that doesn't come across as disparaging as it is just an expression. Fortunately, I know enough to communicate sounds/symptoms with a functional degree of depth to "actual" mechanics that I can make it work vicariously through someone else's design (like your corrective tape example).

Cool concept to think about, people rarely tell me and I don't pay much attention except as a device for not "disenfranchising" the minority within reason. To my knowledge, it isn't an extreme 1/100 minority but closer to 1/10? I'd look it up but part of the fun sometimes is guessing.


I think it's appropriate to add one of my favorite memes (that I use in many contexts) at this point. Certainly some potential for a lefty awareness version of this though.




*credit to whomever made this, if you know please reach out...*




Not being a video game person, I had never thought about this before!

I'm in a financial Discord chat with a lot of young guys -- some of whom enter gaming tournaments. I wonder if a leftie has to work twice as hard to be able to compete with his/her rightie counterparts...
I read Lynx's post and was going to mention that Guitar Hero does have a lefty-flip option but your post somehow cued the memory of the very reason I even know about that lefty-flip (which was a prior friend of mine being left-handed). I played him in a racing game competitively as well and now I'm thinking about the PS1 controller and how that would impact advantage. In a way, using the D-pad to steer dominantly "could" be better but "powersliding" was an important component that would be FAR easier right-handed. It's an interesting equation lol.
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
27,677
9,612
113
#32
Guitar hero would have gotten sued if they hadn't had a lefty flip option. :p

But most gamers wouldn't sue over Skyrim not having left-handed templates for keyboard plus mouse. They would just spend the time to remap their key bindings. Again.