I thought this was pretty hilarious…just might work!

VIM Clutch is a hardware pedal for improved text editing speed for users of the magnificent VIM text editor (1, 2). When the pedal is pressed down, the pedal types “i” causing VIM to go into Insert Mode. When released, it types <Esc> and you are back in Normal Mode.

https://github.com/alevchuk/vim-clutch#readme