Other countries have had such legislation for a while now. For example, Switzerland: http://www.heise.de/netze/meldung/Breitbandzugang-fuer-alle-Schweizer-162094.html . I'm sure there are more.

I'm using dvorak for a few years now, and I'm pretty happy with it. Other people around me have switched too, so I was able to observe some patterns:

• All of us are happier with dvorak and would switch again if given a chance to reconsider that decision.
• I've become considerably faster. With QWERTZU I maxed out at about 360 characters per minute, with dvorak I reach 500. But numbers were/are reached only when I concentrate hard of course, but I do think they scale linearly to a more casual way of typing (meaning: I think I'm also faster when I don't concentrate hard).
• The learning process depends greatly on your own consequence. If you stop using QWERT* at all, and use dvorak exclusively, you're back at your old speed within weeks. A friend who wasn't consquent and kept switching back needed months.
• Switching back to QWERTZU does not work for me, I'm basically a hunter/pecker there. I know someone who claims he can do it within a few minutes, but I'd say that's quite rare. It's not much of a problem though, since about every computer system these days can change keyboard layouts on the fly without too much trouble.
• I've had some wrist problems too. The layout switch helped a little bit, however the switch to an ergonomic keyboard (Logitech Cordless Desktop Comfort in my case) helped much more. Get an ergonomic keyboard, they do help, and they're much cheaper than special solutions like that macron keyboard or whatever it's called.