It’s National Left-handers Day!
Updated July 2026
Happy International Left-Handers Day 2026!
International Left-Handers Day takes place on Thursday, August 13, 2026, including here in Canada. First observed in 1976, the occasion celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026.
The day honours left-handed people and draws attention to the challenges they often encounter in a society primarily designed for right-handed users. Research estimates that approximately 10.6% of the global population is left-handed.
Consider showing a little extra appreciation to the left-handed people in your life today. Scissors and can openers may be the obvious offenders, but there are plenty of other everyday objects that quietly favour right-handed users.
1. Zippers on jeans. The flap covering the zipper is on the left. So it’s nearly impossible to zip with your left hand.
2. Credit card machines. The swiper is always on the right. And if there’s a pen, it’s tethered to the right side of the machine.
3. Measuring cups. If you hold one in your left hand, you’re stuck measuring in milliliters instead of ounces.
4. Car fobs. The kind with a key that opens like a knife. The button is always set up for righties. Lefties have to open them upside down.
5. Microwaves. If you push the button to open it with your left hand, the door hits your arm.
6. Rulers and tape measures. If you use a tape measure left-handed, the numbers are upside down.
7. Power tools, like chop saws. The handle you pull down on is on the right. If you want to use it lefty, you have to cross your arms and reach over the blade. Not safe.
8. Novelty coffee cups. If there’s only printing on one side, it faces out for righties, so other people can see it. For lefties, it looks blank to other people.
9. Playing cards. A lot of them only have numbers in two of the four corners. So you can’t see them well when they’re in your left hand.
10. Serrated knives. Even a lot of lefties don’t know. The teeth are set up to offset the tendency to twist clockwise with your right hand. So lefties tend to cut things like bread thinner at the top and fatter at the bottom.
Is Hand Dominance Hard-Wired?
A 2026 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that some of the superior control people have with their dominant hand may come from years of practice.
Researchers asked right-handed participants to write using their hands and then their elbows. The usual dominant-side advantage disappeared during the unfamiliar elbow-writing task, while practice improved performance on either side.
That does not prove that people become left- or right-handed entirely through practice. Handedness remains complex. The study suggests that a dominant limb’s advantage in performing familiar, precise movements may be learned rather than that the entire side is automatically better at movement.
This keeps the original awareness purpose, makes it current for 2026 and removes the unsafe power-tool example.
via kinkfm
