Fine motor skills

Coordination, strength, and range of motion for the muscles and joints in the hand that manipulate small objects or perform isolated finger movements.

Both buttoning a shirt and inserting a car key into the ignition require fine motor skills. Fine motor skills involve the use of the small muscles and joints in our fingers and hands. They often require the ability to control one finger at a time, such as completing a right-click on a mouse. Or these skills may require complex coordination of all our fingers at once (like typing on a keyboard) to perform quick and repetitive motions. We use fine motor skills throughout the day for tasks like texting, writing, opening our laptop lids, or pressing the power button on our headphones.

Fine motor skills may be impacted when someone is missing fingers or hands, or if they have conditions that limit strength and range of motion—like arthritis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury, stroke, chronic pain, dyspraxia, or an injury to the hand.

Barriers

• Button sizes that assume a person can isolate fingers on a small surface area
• Small ports which require precise positioning and orientation for connecting cords
• Items that require fine motor movements to remove from storage (such as a digital pen)
• Tasks that require intricate movements of the fingers and hands (such as typing)

Facilitators

• Support for alternate input options if a person can’t type or use a mouse (for example, onscreen keyboard, voice, alternate keyboards and mice)​
• Buttons that are larger or easier to access​
• Buttons that are raised against their surrounding surface​
• Cords that require minimal force to insert into, or remove from, a port​
• Flexible options, such as positioning cords into ports that are more forgiving (for example, USB-C)​

Examples

BARRIER — If buttons are small or level with surrounding hardware, they can be difficult to press with larger body parts like knuckles or palms.

FACILITATOR — Increasing button size or height can reduce the amount of dexterity needed to press them. ​

 

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The purpose of this reference is to provide concepts people can use to document and discuss aspects of function. Design should happen with people with disabilities, this reference is meant to support that activity, not replace it.