Mouse for Shaky Hands: Keep Yours, Filter Out the Shaking

A different mouse can make the shaking easier to live with. It can't remove it.

What a different mouse can do

• Feel steadier in your hand. A full-size mouse lets your whole hand rest on it, and a wide base sits steadier on the desk than a small travel mouse. When customers tell us a mouse helped, the kind they name most is a large, heavier mouse with a wide base.
• Absorb a little of the shake. A heavier mouse soaks up some of the shaking, but it takes more effort to move. A lighter one lets SteadyMouse do all the filtering, and it may suit you better if your hand is stiff, slow, or tires easily, as often happens with Parkinson's. The jury is still out on which is best, so try both if you can.
• Cause fewer accidental clicks. Every extra button is one more thing a shaky finger or thumb can press by accident, and a button right under a resting thumb will get pressed when your hand shakes. Left, right, a wheel, and perhaps two small side buttons are plenty.
• Stay in one place. A trackball or a roller mouse doesn't move across the desk. You roll a ball or a bar instead, so there is no mouse to hold steady while you press a button. Assistive technology specialists have told us they set up roller mice for people who use SteadyMouse. Both take a week or two to get used to, and some people go back to a mouse.
• Make dragging easier, for some people. See one customer's story below.
• Feel more responsive or more convenient. Wired or wireless, optical or laser: these change how a mouse feels more than how much it shakes. Some people find a wired mouse a little more responsive, and a wireless one gives you more freedom on the desk. All of them work with SteadyMouse.

What no mouse can do

• Filter out the shaking. A heavier mouse dampens it a little, but none removes it.
• Stop every accidental click. Even on a well-chosen mouse, a shaky finger will sometimes press a button.
• Do better because it costs more. An expensive mouse isn't steadier than a plain one. Gaming mice advertise speed and sensitivity figures that make no difference for everyday use, and some have a dozen buttons, which is a lot for a shaky hand.

Dragging means holding a button down while you move the mouse: moving a file, selecting text, pulling a scroll bar. Many people with tremor find it the hardest thing to do with a mouse.

A customer with essential tremor wrote to tell us what fixed it. Several mice and Windows settings hadn't helped much. Then a vertical mouse, which you hold like a handshake, made dragging far easier. The customer uses it together with SteadyMouse, which steadies the cursor and ignores stray button presses.

Here is how that email explained it:

The trade-off: because the press is sideways, a click can nudge the whole mouse and move the cursor a little. A firmer grip, with your thumb holding the other side, helps. One customer's good result is not a promise, so if you try one, buy it where returns are easy.

If you do switch mice: weight changes which SteadyMouse filter strength works best, so go through filter tuning again. Some mice also come with their own settings software that can override the Windows mouse speed. If your cursor speed keeps changing after you set it, check that software first.

• An extra large mouse pad. A slower cursor shows less of the shake, but your hand has to travel farther. A big pad stops the mouse hitting the edge. It is the change we recommend to nearly everyone.
• Rest your forearm on the desk or a padded armrest, so your hand isn't held up in the air.
• Keep a spare mouse. A worn-out button can fail to click when you need it, and a worn cord or a dead battery can stop a mouse working altogether. With tremor, you have enough on your plate already.

The full desk setup and the Windows settings that help most are in how to use a computer mouse with hand tremor.

SteadyMouse is software for Windows. It works with the mouse you already have, and it:

• removes the shaking before it reaches your cursor,
• blocks accidental clicks, and
• with Icon Targeting, snaps the cursor onto the icon or button you are aiming for.

It's a one-time purchase with no subscription, and every purchase includes a 70-day money-back guarantee. See what SteadyMouse does, and how it handles accidental clicks.

Using a Mac? See SteadyMouse for Mac.

Most people never need any. But a different mouse, a trackball, or a roller mouse can help with two things software can't: a stiff or tired hand, and holding a button down while you drag. For a short list of optional picks, with notes on who each one suits, see mice, mouse pads and other helpful gear.

Questions? Email support@steadymouse.com.