Do you need a foot pedal for legal or medical transcription?

No. A foot pedal is a convenience for legal and medical transcription, not a requirement. It starts, pauses and rewinds a recording with your foot, so your hands can stay on the keyboard. Express Scribe, for one, runs the same controls from the keyboard, so you can work without a pedal. Buy a pedal if you transcribe for hours each day and the keyboard controls slow you down.

Express Scribe can run the same playback controls from the keyboard

Express Scribe is a playback program used for transcription. Its maker, NCH Software, says the program uses hot keys or a foot pedal to help transcribe audio and control playback ¹. The same maker presents the two as alternatives on its home page, with keyboard hot keys or a supported transcribing pedal as the two ways to run playback ².

A pedal can work this way because it is an input device, like a keyboard. The OM System AS-2700 foot switch is HID keyboard compatible ³, so software that accepts keyboard input can usually map it like a key. Check your program's shortcut list before you buy, because a pedal can only do what the software maps to a key.

A pedal saves hands and attention, not a fixed amount of time

The pedal's main job is to keep your hands on the keys. Philips describes its foot control as letting you start, pause, rewind and fast-forward audio with a slight movement of the foot tip ⁴. The idea is old. Typists used playback machines with foot pedals to control speed and to reverse and repeat passages ⁵.

Some vendors claim that pedals raise output. We did not find an independent study that measures typing speed or accuracy with a pedal against keyboard shortcuts, for legal or for medical work. Treat any gain figure on a product page as a claim. The test you can run yourself is simpler: time an hour of transcription with the keyboard controls, then time an hour with a pedal, and count how often your hands leave the keys.

Legal and medical transcription differ in how they play audio

Live court reporting on a stenotype, or by voice writing, is not played back from a recording, so a playback pedal matters less there. Our entries on stenotype and voice writing explain those methods. The pedal question applies mainly to recorded audio: depositions, law-firm dictation and the recordings used in medical dictation.

NIOSH investigators found a potential for excessive noise exposure with the dictation equipment used in transcription ⁶. That finding concerns equipment and volume, not pedals, but it is relevant to any long session of listening. Set the volume so that you can hear the speaker clearly, rather than turning it up to catch every word.

A foot pedal is a workflow choice, not a way to prevent strain

A pedal is a workflow tool, not a health treatment. The 2018 Cochrane review of office ergonomics found that workstation adjustment and sit-stand desks did not have an effect on upper limb pain or discomfort, compared with no intervention ⁷. That review covered office workers, not transcriptionists, and no study we found shows that a pedal prevents strain in transcription work. If you have wrist or hand pain, see a clinician rather than relying on a pedal.

It depends: when a foot pedal is worth buying

• You transcribe for hours a day. Repeated play, pause and rewind is where a pedal saves the most hand movement. It is worth buying if the time it saves is worth more to you than its cost.
• You stop typing to press play. If you switch windows or reach for the mouse, the pedal removes that switch. Test the keyboard controls first, because your program may already do it.
• You transcribe a few hours a week, or you check machine drafts. Keyboard controls are usually enough.
• Your employer or agency names equipment. Follow its list. We did not find an official rule that requires a pedal, and a firm or court may name a specific device.

Before you buy, confirm that the pedal is on your software's list of supported devices. A pedal the program does not support may not control playback.

What to do

1. Learn the keyboard controls first. Open your transcription program, find its play, pause and rewind keys, and use them for a full day. NCH's video tutorials cover the keyboard shortcuts and hot keys in Express Scribe.
2. Buy a pedal only if the keys slow you down. Confirm that the model works with your program before you order.
3. Practice on audio with a known answer. Express Scribe's free practice files pair each recording with a completed transcription, so you can check your own work against it ⁸.
4. Keep the volume low. Follow the NIOSH finding above, and rest your ears between long sessions.

For the wider picture, read our guide to legal transcription and our guide to medical dictation. The overview of dictation for work covers the other roles. To see what the device does, read what a dictation foot pedal is, and the dictation foot pedal entry defines the term. For the business side, see how much legal transcription pays and whether legal transcription is still in demand.