OHCOW ErgoTools - Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA)

Developed by: OHCOW (Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers)

Description: RULA is an assessment designed to quickly identify risky hand, arm, and shoulder postures in a workplace task. It takes user-inputted data about what a worker’s arm is doing and calculates a numerical relative risk for MSDs. The evaluation also considers general body posture, hand loads, and the duration/frequency of the task. A larger number indicates higher risk, and RULA tends to be more sensitive at detecting potential MSD risks than other assessment tools (it will generally identify many hazards. 

This resource is an online, interactive version of RULA. After completing the evaluation, you’ll be taken to a summary page indicating potential actions the assessment recommends (if any). Convenient scoring information is provided about each selected option to help identify what part of the evaluated task contributes to overall MSD risk. 

Keywords: RULA, Upper Limb, Arm, Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist, Hand, Assessment, Posture, Calculator