Suzanne Cross has been the Neil Squire Society (new window)’s Manager of Development and Communications for almost 3 years. She has been with the Society, however, for over 6 years, beginning as a volunteer tutor in the Computer Comfort program and later working as the Executive Assistant and Coordinator of Business Development.

Suzanne’s many duties include writing grant applications, reports, and press releases; working with spreadsheets and databases, and designing brochures and ads. She also does a fair amount of social networking. These tasks require her to spend long periods of time in front of a computer. Add to this the fact that Suzanne is a self-described “life-long gamer” and its no surprise that she suffers from repetitive strain injury (new window). “All of the years I’ve spent on the computer have finally caught up to me and I can really feel it in my fingers and wrists,” she explains.

A few simple changes to her workstation have helped lessen the pain Suzanne feels and have allowed her to concentrate more fully on her work. At her desk, she now uses a smaller than average keyboard which requires less pressure to hit the keys than a normal keyboard. She also employs a trackball (new window) instead of a regular mouse which she finds lessens her wrist pain. On the suggestion of Katrina, the Occupational Therapist (new window) at the Neil Squire Society (new window) in Burnaby (new window), Suzanne also uses a moveable laptop tray and a highly adjustable office chair that fits her. As well, her desk was recently moved to the opposite side of her office and away from a glary window in an effort to cut down on the daily strain to her eyes.

These small changes were all that was need to allow Suzanne to accomplish all the hard work she does without pain.