Couple of years back, when I was a junior programmer, I wished that I could have a special keyboard for left hand typing only. There was a special keyboard selling for $200 dollar back then and used a special key “Spacebar” to switch between a layout for the left handed or mostly left hand only people to use.
I found it a bit expensive back then, so I went to experimented it in a software setting, such as this Codepen where I actually imagined there could be a foot paddle to simulate this switch. The idea is simple, when the trigger happens, the keyboard flips horizontally like a mirror. This way you can reach letter “i” with left hand using letter “e”. I’m not handicapped, but since I am right handed, I wish sometimes I could use my right hand for other activities while typing using my left hand only. It’s an persisting idea.
Recently I happen to get into the split keyboard camp where keyboards are small in size thus supporting layers. I found my idea couple of years back can be implemented quite easily now. Since all I need to do is to add a new layer for the left hand switch. Actually my requirement isn’t even demanding, because all I want to access with my left hand is mostly letters.
So I setup a special layer key MO(2) for my left hand, once pressed, it’ll switch to the above layout. For the reference, I attached the base layout below before the switch.
Interesting I solved this puzzle under a few minutes in a physical keyboard, believe it or not, I’m typing it this way right now. Of course my typing speed of my left hand only is about maybe 20 wpm verse my normal speed with both hands of above 80 wpm easily. But I’m not trying to retire my right hand, I’m simply want to take a break of my right hand while I can continue typing. And this serves me quite well. You can see I can even hit nasty one like , , ., or even more special ones like “Return” and “Backspace” with a single left hand. Amazing discovery afterwards. To be frank, being able to reach certain keys with any hand carries a bit crazy convenience since keep in mind, your right hand sometimes has to do other tasks, such as using a mouse, flipping a book, or grabbing a cup of coffee, or even just taking a break from exhausting typing.
Alright, just to sum it up. Typing using a single hand for regular sentences isn’t that difficult these days. You just need to find a keyboard that supports layers and basically take a mirror and horizontally flip the keys. To make this solution full, I add the right hand version below to the left hand version I showed above in case you want to take a break from left hand typing. Enjoy!
Note: you might wonder how to do the basic things other than letters, the answer is that you still have your base layout :) Here I’m only adding a new layer, referring as a mirror layout.
