Assistive technology for children and young people with low vision

Thomas, Rachel; Dahlmann‐Noor, Annegret; Barker, Lucy; Rubin, Gary S.

doi:10.1002/14651858.cd011350

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In contrast to previous systematic reviews, 5,9,105 this review focuses specifically on children and included studies irrespective of study design, with the exception of single case studies or studies with less than 10 participants. We used a broad search strategy to get an overall view of all available evidence, employing multiple databases as well as searching the gray literature for relevant studies.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitations Of This Systematic Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discrepancies were resolved by discussion and/or consultation of a third researcher. Reference lists of retrieved articles and identified reviews 5,9,17,18,29,38,80,105,114,122 were searched by hand to ensure all relevant studies were considered. Additional strategies were used to include relevant "gray literature," that is, abstracts from conference proceedings, which never have been published in scientific journals.…”

Section: Search Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…92 More recently, Thomas and colleagues and Barker and colleagues performed Cochrane systematic reviews on the effectiveness of, respectively, assistive technology and optical reading aids in children and young people with visual impairment. 5,105 Because of the focus on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in Cochrane reviews, no studies met the inclusion criteria and they concluded that there is a lack of high-quality evidence regarding the use of assistive technology and optical reading aids in children and young people with visual impairment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interventions to improve functioning, participation, and quality of life in children with visual impairment: a systematic review

Elsman

Baaj

Rens

et al. 2019

Survey of Ophthalmology

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Editors Keywords: visual impairment children rehabilitation review functioning participation a b s t r a c t Visual impairment in childhood often has life-long implications. To aim for the highest levels of functioning, participation, and quality of life and to ensure children's well-being, children should be entitled to the most effective rehabilitation programs. We review evidence for the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions for children with visual impairment to improve skills and behavior, thereby improving participation and quality of life as an ultimate goal. Of the 441 potentially relevant articles identified, 66 studies met our inclusion criteria (i.e., 28 randomized controlled trials, 18 nonrandomized controlled trials, and 20 before-after comparisons). The results suggest that sports camps, prescription and training in the use of low vision devices, and oral hygiene programs might be effective in improving functioning and elements of participation and quality of life in children with visual impairment. Other interventions showed mixed or negative results. The results should be interpreted with caution because of moderate to high risk of bias and suboptimal reporting. Heterogeneity of results and the use of over 50 different outcome measures prevented a meta-analysis. Future studies should focus on promising interventions for which effectiveness is still unclear (e.g., mobility, social skills), with adequately designed methodology.

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Section: Strengths and Limitations Of This Systematic Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Search Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Interventions to improve functioning, participation, and quality of life in children with visual impairment: a systematic review

Elsman

Baaj

Rens

et al. 2019

Survey of Ophthalmology

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“…Advances in technology, increased availability and reduced cost of mainstream technology have had a flow-on effect into the assistive technology domain for people with visual impairment. 6 In particular, touchscreen technology and portable electronic devices (tablet computers and smart phones) with accessibility features for those with visual impairment are now widespread and more affordable.…”

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confidence: 99%

An update on the characteristics of patients attending the Kooyong Low Vision Clinic

Chong

Jackson

Wolffsohn

et al. 2016

Clinical and Experimental Optometry

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Background Since 1972, the Australian College of Optometry has worked in partnership with Vision Australia to provide multidisciplinary low‐vision care at the Kooyong Low Vision Clinic. In 1999, Wolffsohn and Cochrane reported on the demographic characteristics of patients attending Kooyong. Sixteen years on, the aim of this study is to review the demographics of the Kooyong patient cohort and prescribing patterns. Methods Records of all new patients (n = 155) attending the Kooyong Low Vision Clinic for optometry services between April and September 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Results Median age was 84.3 years (range 7.7 to 98.1 years) with 59 per cent female. The majority of patients presented with late‐onset degenerative pathology, 49 per cent with a primary diagnosis of age‐related macular degeneration. Many (47.1 per cent) lived with their families. Mean distance visual acuity was 0.57 ± 0.47 logMAR or approximately 6/24. The median spectacle‐corrected near visual acuity was N8 (range N3 to worse than N80). Fifty patients (32.3 per cent) were prescribed new spectacles, 51 (32.9 per cent) low vision aids and five (8.3 per cent) were prescribed electronic magnification devices. Almost two‐thirds (63.9 per cent) were referred for occupational therapy management and 12.3 per cent for orientation and mobility services. Conclusions The profile of patients presenting for low‐vision services at Kooyong is broadly similar to that identified in 1999. Outcomes appear to be similar, aside from an expected increase in electronic devices and technological solutions; however, the nature of services is changing, as treatments for ocular diseases advance and assistive technology develops and becomes more accessible. Alongside the aging population and age‐related ocular disease being the predominant cause of low vision in Australia, the health‐funding landscape is becoming more restrictive. The challenge for the future will be to provide timely, high‐quality care in an economically efficient model.

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“…Line spacing may play significant role in improving reading rate of normally-sighted subjects and low vision patients. Studies (Paterson & Tinker, 1947;Soleimani & Mohammadi, 2012;Tarita-Nistor, Lam, Brent, Steinbach, & González, 2013;Thomas, Barker, Rubin, & Dahlmann-Noor, 2015) measured the reading speed of normally-sighted subjects when they read materials of different font sizes. They found that, all materials with different line spacing were read faster than text set solid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Line Spacing on Reading Performance of Normally Sighted and Simulated Visually-Impaired Subjects: A Pilot Study Using Arabic Words

Alotaibi

2017

GJHS

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The study aims to evaluate the role of line spacing during reading in normal and visually-impaired persons. A total of 225 normally-sighted participants with mean age of 23.7 years were asked to read Arabic sentences in a randomized order. Each Arabic sentence contains 7 lines with and without simulated cataract. The words were printed with black letters on white background to enhance contrast and fonts were in Times New Roman and of N12 letter size. The reading pages were placed on reading stand situated 25 cm away from the subject's eyes. The simulated cataract was created by using a Bernell Cling Patch Occluder. This reduced the visual acuity of all subjects to 20/60. Each line of the text was separated by different line spacing namely: single space, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 which represents, 0.5 cm, 0.8 cm, 1.1 cm, 1.4 cm, 1.7 cm and 2.0 cm, respectively. The sheets were presented randomly and participants' voices were recorded as they read under a controlled time. The tape was analysed later and reading rate was calculated. There was a significant difference (p<0.0001) in reading rates between the normal sighted persons and the visually impaired persons for all line spacing. Modifying the spacing between lines in prints had a significant impact (p<0.0001) on the reading rate of the visually impaired but not in normally-sighted persons (p˃0.05). Intermediate line spacing (2 and 2.5) increased the reading rate of the visually impaired persons significantly more (p<0.001) than other line spacing, but smaller or larger line spacing slowed their reading rate, significantly (p<0.001). The visually-impaired persons reported that they felt the difference in reading prints with larger line spacing as compared with normal sighted participants who did not. It is beneficial to adequately modify the line spacing in prints commonly read by low vision persons. For Arab subjects the optimum line spacing to significantly improve reading in the visually impaired should range from 0.8 to 1.1 cm. This finding may be a useful for publishers of Arab prints targeting the visually impaired persons. Thus, the implication of the study in the field of health is that by establishing the least common line spacing visualized optimally among normal and simulated visually impaired persons would be fixed as default line spacing for Arab printing to achieve better reading performance.

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Assistive technology for children and young people with low vision

Cited by 8 publications

References 41 publications

Interventions to improve functioning, participation, and quality of life in children with visual impairment: a systematic review

Interventions to improve functioning, participation, and quality of life in children with visual impairment: a systematic review

An update on the characteristics of patients attending the Kooyong Low Vision Clinic

Effects of Line Spacing on Reading Performance of Normally Sighted and Simulated Visually-Impaired Subjects: A Pilot Study Using Arabic Words

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