Image Description: Picture of purple fountain pen.

For many people with structural disabilities, hands are the first thing to go. Which is unfortunate, to say the least, as hands are normalized into every single aspect of able-bodied society. Many assistive technologies are inaccessible to the majority of the public, and even then, either insurance won’t cover them or they’re at a price point disabled people cannot possibly afford.

So let me introduce you to the fountain pen.

In the last fifty years, fountain pens have started to phase out of common use. However, they do still exist, and at relatively affordable prices! The majority of fountain pens stack up in the $100-$300 USD range, but there are dozens that go even cheaper than that. You can even get them for under $20.

Not only are they affordable, they’re environmentally friendly—very little plastic trash comes from using a fountain pen—and, more importantly, for people with disabilities, they can be a savior. Fountain pens use liquid ink, run through a metal nib directly onto the page. You can’t push down too hard, or it will break the pen. If you press down too light or hold the pen incorrectly, they won’t write. Their flow is very forgiving—even the shakiest hands won’t get stray lines or marks, because of the pressure required to get the ink through the nib.

Fountain pens are essentially designed in such a way that, in order to use them, you must do so in the way that is least strenuous on your writing hand. Many of them even have barrels designed so that the user holding them has to do so in a safe and helpful way—the TWSBI Eco, for example. They’re certainly not a failsafe, but for weak hands/wrists/forearms, the difference in investing into a fountain pen is significant. The main difficulty with fountain pens is that they’re a “niche collector’s item,” and getting access to any insular community can be difficult.

Where can someone get a fountain pen? Well, there are still some brick and mortar stores—but the majority of the modern fountain pen trade is based online. Which, as sad as it is for fountain pen enthusiasts, can be a lifesaver for disabled users.

Within the United States, the two major online companies are JetPens and Goulet Pens—JetPens is a Japanese-stationary focused company, while Goulet is exclusively fountain-pen based. In Canada, there’s Wonder Pens (which also has a brick and mortar store), and in Europe, there are numerous websites you can buy from, including Penshop, Pen World, and Cult Pens.

(In addition, you can check Reddit threads within the collector community for other locations to buy pens from—I’m U.S. based, so I buy from Goulet. A starter thread can be found here.)

But what to buy? The pens, companies, and information are almost endless. I won’t be doing a whole breakdown here (see the end of the article for copious links to beginner’s user guides) but I will be doing a quick breakdown of the pens I’ve had the best experiences with. For the discerning reader, I have hypermobile wrists and severe tendinitis in all ten fingers on both my hands with a grip strength of under 10lbs/4.5kg, as well as tennis elbow in both arms and nerve damage in my left arm, so let that be something of a comparison litmus for these.

There are all kinds of different pens—cheap all-plastic options like the Platinum Preppy ($3/$4) or the Pilot Petit1 ($4 and sized extra-small for the smallest hands) are very good for if you’re unsure if you’ll get any use out of them, but more sturdy pens like the Pilot Metropolitan ($15-$18) and the Nemosine Singularity ($19) (which weighs almost nothing) can give you a better idea of what you’re in for with a fountain pen.

For sturdy and over-size, wide-bodied pens (that don’t look tacky, like many assistive devices sometimes do) there are a lot of options too. The Lamy ABC ($20, pictured above) Lamy Safari ($29) and Lamy Al-Star ($37) are respectively made of wood, Lego-grade plastic, and aluminum, and all three are wider bodied. The Pilot Prera ($32) is also wide-bodied and extremely light.

For people who need narrower, finer pens, you can look for pens like the Pilot Cavalier ($33 for a solid color or $53 for a mottled color).

However, my own personal preferred pen is the TWSBI Eco. They aren’t the best starter pen in the world (they can require a lot of maintenance) but the Eco is a piston-filled pen, with the ink held directly in the body. No cartridge or converter inserts required. In addition, it’s solid plastic, and should you crack the body, you can get a replacement for $10. Their bodies are wide but light, their nibs write great at any width, and they have their grip fashioned so that they require the user to hold it “properly” i.e., with the least strain on your hand possible.

Fountain pens are an incredible investment and one that pays off in numerous ways. They’re cost-effective and environmentally conscious, they can ease the pain of handwriting for those who need to, and they look very slick. Unlike modern pens, you can get ink in pretty much any color (including glittery, highlighter and scented) for relatively the same price as any other ink. There are downsides, of course—they’re relatively expensive up-front, they require a lot more maintenance than a ballpoint, and they can and do regularly leak amongst a host of other issues—but overall fountain pens can reintroduce handwriting into the grasp of people who otherwise could not have been able to do so. I, for one, highly recommend them!

Happy writing!

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Resource links:

From JetPens: Beginner’s Guide, Filling Systems, User’s Guide, Left-Handed User’s Guide.

From Goulet: Fountain Pens 101, Anatomy of a Fountain Pen, and Fountain Pen Glossary.