When Louisvillian Joe Tomasulo lost the use of his right arm in a 2020 motorcycle accident, he had to learn to do everything differently — including playing video games. Now, his one-handed mouse and keyboard design is gearing up for a full production run that he hopes will expand accessibility for gamers, professionals, and artists.

After his accident, Tomasulo created his own jury-rigged controller by hot glueing a wireless mouse to a one-handed keyboard so he could play games one-handed. He says the existing solutions for one-handed gaming fell short in terms of affordability, ergonomics, or functionality. When he shared his creation online, it became clear that he wasn't the only one facing this issue.

"The first 200 emails I got, I knew I had something," Tomasulo told me.

So he set to work designing his own. Several rounds of iteration later, the Ercham MK 1 was born. It's an all-in-one mouse and keyboard, plus thumb sticks and extra programable buttons, that can be used with either the left or right hand. It's planned to be customizable, with modules that snap on and off for different use cases.

Those different uses are something Tomasulo is very interested in supporting. The Ercham was designed for gamers, but it can be used for graphic design, video editing, and any other task that requires both mouse and keyboard usage. He hopes people of all abilities will find it useful as a productivity tool or a resource for recreation.

"Being disabled, I realized there's a lot more people than me who could benefit."

Tomasulo hopes to have the first functional prototype of the Ercham ready by September. Once he's satisfied with the design, he'll launch a crowd funding campaign, likely by the end of the year. If the first model is successful, he hopes to follow it up with a wireless pro version with more modular parts.