the keyboard was originally designed to be inconvenient. The designers were afraid folks would type too fast for the mechanics of the old typewriters from which the keyboard was inherited.

You're right (pun unavoidable). A while back, IBM made typewriter with the type on a ball (rather than a series of rods), and the balls were interchangeable: you could insert one to give you special symbols or keyboard arrangements. IBM offered a ball for a keyboard arrangement that's designed to be more efficient (the "Dvorak" keyboard), but it never caught on.

Windows offers some Dvorak keyboards (found in "control panel; keyboard"), most of them designed for a typist who has use of only one hand.