Reading Aids For The Visually Impaired
There are many products that can assist you if you have somedegree of vision loss. On our website you will findsimple and effective solutions that can help you to performyour everyday activities, regain your independence and improve the quality ofyour life.
You will find the following main product categories.
Data Collection And Analysis
Selection of studies
Independently, two review authors assessed titles and abstracts for eligibility. Studies were divided into categories to ‘definitely include’, ‘definitely exclude’ and ‘possibly include’, and final judgements about inclusion/exclusion were made by obtaining fulltext copies of the studies in the ‘possibly include’ category. Abstracts and, where necessary, fulltext articles were translated into English before a final decision was made regarding inclusion/exclusion. Disagreements between the two review authors was to be resolved by discussion or a designated third author, or both, but no disagreement occurred.
Data extraction and management
We had planned for two authors to independently extract data using the data extraction form developed in conjunction with the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group using Chapter 7 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for guidance . Data were to be entered into Review Manager software by one author and to be independently reviewed and crosschecked by a second.
For continuous data, data on the mean and standard deviation in each group were to be extracted. RevMan was to be used to calculate the mean difference and 95% confidence intervals . When dealing with crossover studies we planned to use the generic inverse variance method as described in Chapter 16 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for guidance .
Assessment of risk of bias in included studies
Selection bias
Breakthrough Assistive Technology For Visually Impaired
Living with low vision or vision loss can be challenging especially when it comes to living independently. IrisVision revolutionary assistive technology for people with visual impairments, uses the functional areas of the eye and enhances the leftover vision to bring back the gift of sight that may have been previously harmed by an injury or any degenerative eye disease.
Read Also: Price Of Costco Hearing Aids
Macular Degeneration Aids Using Light And Magnification
There are many types of magnifiers to assist you with your reading.While a hand held magnifier is good for spot reading – such as checking abill or looking at a simple instruction sheet they are NOT good forreading books or long articles.
Page magnifiers are a functional and versatile maculardegeneration magnifier. They enhance your reading experience bymagnifying a whole page or just a particular section of the page.
You can find full page magnifiers that are made of a high qualityplastic or acrylic lens or a glass lens. Magnification power is usually2x, 2.5x, and 3x power.
A lighted full page magnifier with an adjustable arm has been myfather-in-law’s favorite reading magnifier. The bright LED lights meanshe needs less magnification, which means he can see more words on apage.
Magnifying Reading Aids For Children And Teenagers With Low Vision
Background Low vision in children and teenagers not only affects reading, learning and education but is also thought to have a significant effect on a child’s general development. Magnifying reading aids can assist a child or teenager to make the best use of the vision they have.
We reviewed the current evidence on the use of magnifying reading aids in children between the ages of 5 and 16 years of age with low vision, when compared to the use of glasses alone. We included magnifying aids such as hand or standheld magnifying glasses, telescopes or binoculars but we excluded electronic reading aids which will be the subject of a separate review.
Search date The electronic databases were last searched on 8 January 2015.
We found no studies which met our criteria for inclusion in this review. We recommend that future studies in this area consider the effect of magnifying reading aids on reading speed and accuracy as well as simply the size of text correctly seen, in order to assess more fully the effect of the reading aid on a child’s normal function. We also recommend that the effect of the reading aid on the child’s quality of life is investigated as this may have significant implications on its regular and/or longterm use.
Also Check: How Long Does Hiv Live On Clothes
Best Illuminated Stand Magnifier
System Vario Plus is the illuminated stand magnifier. A system with the widest range of illumination settings and magnifications, making it the most popular illuminated magnifier series of all time. Both the head and the handle are available separately.)
The System Vario PLUS has a big lens size that provides a wide field of view, allowing you to see more reading material at once. Because of the incorporated magnification head, it gives optimum brightness. For enhanced ergonomic comfort, the lens head can be turned toward the user. Compatible with Eschenbachs two System Vario handles, the #1599-10 incandescent battery and the #1599-144 LED battery with three color variations.
There are much cheaper stand magnifiers out there but the problem is most of them have long legs and require you to have to almost stand up over the top of them to use them. This style is much more comfortable for long periods of use.
Search Methods For Identification Of Studies
Electronic searches
We searched CENTRAL , Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE InProcess and Other NonIndexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE , EMBASE , the Health Technology Assessment Programme , the ISRCTN registry , ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform . We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 8 January 2015.
See: Appendices for details of search strategies for CENTRAL , MEDLINE , EMBASE , HTA , ISRCTN , ClinicalTrials.gov and the ICTRP .
Searching other resources
We also used manual searching to check the references listed in retrieved articles. Manufacturers of LVAs were contacted to request any information of which they are aware about studies or research regarding their products.
Also Check: Can You Get Hiv From Saliva
How To Choose The Best Devices To Help You See
To help you determine the best type of device for your low vision, you need a low vision examination. At the doctorâs office, you will undergo various tests. Once the evaluation results are in, you can try on some available devices. A low vision expert or occupational therapist working closely with your eye doctor will give you first-hand training on how to effectively use a device, even before you purchase it.â
There are many devices available for people with low vision. They vary from low to high technology and come with different price tags. With the help of professional evaluation, anyone with low vision can get the help they need to improve their life.
Show Sources
Allow The Compact 10 Hd Speech To Do The Reading For You
To enlarge and read newspapers, mails, and periodicals, the Compact 10 HD Speech is an excellent choice. However, its one-of-a-kind swing-out arm opens up a whole new world of possibilities. It effortlessly grabs and reads full-page documents to you. The handy indicator at the bottom of the Compact 10 HD Speech shows you where to put the document you wish to read. Simply place the document on the table, take a picture, and sit back as the Compact 10 HD Speech delivers the content to you.
Read Also: What Can You Do If You Have Hiv
Description Of The Condition
In 2004, the World Health Organization reported that more than 161 million people worldwide were visually impaired, with 124 million classified as having low vision and 37 million classified as blind . In children, the prevalence of blindness varies from 0.3/1000 in highincome countries to over 1.0/1000 in low and middleincome countries, equating to around 1.4 million blind children worldwide . Low vision is about twice as common as childhood blindness, and might affect almost 3 million children worldwide .
Children are considered to have ‘low vision’ when the corrected visual acuity is between less than 6/18 and light perception in their better eye, or their visual field is less than 10 degrees from the point of fixation, but they use, or are potentially able to use, vision for the planning or execution, or both, of a task . There is an overlap between the definitions of VI and SVI/BL. The exact definition of childhood blindness is variable, but usually ranges between a bestcorrected visual acuity of less than 6/60 to 3/60 in the betterseeing eye in a young person under the age of 15 years .
Quality Of The Evidence
The lack of randomisation and the favoured use of crossover or withinperson design studies in this subject has also been discussed above and in a previous review on LVA use in adults . Whilst we elected to include withinperson design studies where the order in which the devices were presented was randomised, the limitations of this type of methodology remain, particularly when used in developing children or progressive pathology . Ideally, parallelarmed studies at multiple age groups would provide comparable and extrapolatable evidence, however the large numbers required for this type of design, particularly if it was to include all age groups, likely make this type of study design prohibitive.
You May Like: How Long Hiv To Aids
The Introduction Of Reading For The Blind
The first generation of reading devices was in fact the Braille tactile reading system invented in the early 1800s by the French inventor Louis Braille. Using this method, blind and visually impaired people were able to feel letters and words on a specially designed reading device that came in the form of a sheet printed in braille text for them to read from.
Once the Braille method became available worldwide, schools for people with low vision began opening up in most countries. Almost all of them used the new tactile reading system to teach their students how to read independently. Even though this new method opened up the world of reading text to people with low vision, there were a number of problems in relying on braille only for reading text.
The main obstacle with relying on Braille only is that most of the text used worldwide is not written in braille. Luckily, with the advancement of technology has created new reading opportunities and new devices to help people who are visually impaired read text.
Explor 12 Portable Magnifier With Stand
The explor 12 Portable Magnifieris the largest in the Explore line of portable magnifiers. Designed as an easy-to-use electronic magnifier that offers superb full high-definition image quality for improved near and distance viewing allowing you to do the things you want.
The 12-inch touch screen is the perfect low vision magnifier for anyone who wants a larger interface for reading, writing, painting, drawing and so much more.
With its superior magnification range, this tablet-sized magnifier allows the continuation of everyday activities like reading and writing, viewing pictures and maps, and much more, just about anywhere.
With a lightweight design and 3.5-hour battery life, its an ideal companion for maintaining your active lifestyle wherever you are at home or on the go. The explor 12 Portable Magnifieris not only easy to carry but also very simple to use. Just pull it out of your bag, turn it on and its ready when you are!
You May Like: Does Having An Std Increase The Risk Of Contracting Hiv
Overall Completeness And Applicability Of Evidence
We identified only two studies and one nonrandomised clinical trial which recruited children. The difficulty in assessing LVA use in young children has already been discussed with regard to the additional confounding factor that these children are learning to read at the same time. This may contribute to the paucity of studies on LVA use in children. A similar review performed in adult participants however, also identified a lack of highquality evidence from which to draw conclusions .
The variability of outcome measures should also be mentioned. In the three studies detailed above on which we have sufficient information, Greene 1993 used a subjective questionnaire to assess patient use and acceptance of LVAs, Huurneman 2013 used near visual acuity and response time and John 2006 used distance acuity, reading speed and comprehension assessments as outcome measures. The disparity in reported outcomes prohibits comparison, even if the study designs had been more favourable. A standardised approach to assessing the effect of LVA interventions would allow more accurate and evidencebased comparison in future studies.
How To Address Vision Impairment
According to the estimates of WHO:
Around 80% of the vision impairment throughout the world is considered avoidable.
Though there are different remedies, medications and treatments to treat eye diseases or prevent them from deteriorating, other injuries or harm caused by eye conditions may be irreversible.
Low vision glasses and contact lenses can be used to treat uncorrected refractive errors, whereas cataract surgery may help restore your vision.
Similarly, people with irreversible vision impairment may resort to low vision aids like IrisVision, which can augment their diminished vision caused by a host of different eye diseases.
Recommended Reading: When Can Hiv Be Detected
Essential Software: A Screen Reader
A screen reader is an essential piece of software for a blind or visually impaired person. Simply put, a screen reader transmits whatever text is displayed on the computer screen into a form that a visually impaired user can process . While the most basic screen readers will not help blind users navigate a computer, those with additional features can give people with visual impairment much more independence.
Whilst most screen readers work by having a synthetic voice that reads text aloud, others can also communicate data via a refreshable braille display. Such screen readers make use of crystals that can expand when exposed to particular voltage levels , allowing visually impaired users to use their fingers to read the text that is displayed on screen. But while screen-reading software can be affordable, such hardware is usually very expensive.
Low Vision Reading Aids
There are many low vision reading aids to help those with macular degeneration continue reading.
With the use of proper lighting, low vision rehabilitation, large print books, electronic book readers, and magnifying reading glasses you can continue to enjoy reading your favorite magazines, newspapers and books.
Recommended Reading: How To Live With Hiv Without Medication
Jaws Screen Reading Software
Now it is possible for the visuallyimpaired people to read texts from a computer. They can make this a reality byusing the JAWS screen reading software.
This device works by analyzing thedisplayed text on the screen and then re-presents it via the Braille outputdevice or the speech synthesizer.
The JAWS Screen Reading Software presentsthe text displayed on the screen by using the speech synthesizer. Thus, thisdevice allows a blind person to read the message on the computer.
JAWS makes it possible for the visuallyimpaired person to surf the net, communicate through messaging, send emails,compose spreadsheets and documents, and many more.
Reading Aids For Visually Impaired
There are many reading aids for visually impaired people currently on the market. However, there are no products on the market like the OrCam MyEye.
The OrCam MyEye is a smart camera that sits on a pair of eyeglass frames and reads texts to the user via a mini earpiece. The assistive technology device also has a facial recognition and product recognition feature. For people who want a product primarily focused on reading, OrCam has the answer. It is called the OrCam MyReader, an assistive technology device that focuses entirely on text recognition.
Where did the idea for the OrCam MyReader come from?
OrCam is 100% devoted to its users. They take every bit of feedback to heart in order to continue to improve the device. The company took what many users like about the OrCam MyEye and created the OrCam MyReader. The main essence of the OrCam is its ability to read texts. To create a version that takes the intuitive interface of the OrCam MyEye device and focus it solely on reading is a great idea, says Chana Turner, OrCam Software Engineer.
Recommended Reading: How Quickly Does Hiv Show Up
Reveal 16i Portable Magnifier With Speech
The Reveal 16i Portable Magnifierlow vision aid is very simple to use and easily folds up for transport or storage. This digital magnifier offers an unmatched crisp, and crystal-clear image quality thanks to its 10x optical zoom camera.
Designed for seniors and students with simplicity in mind, it is simple & expandable. Simple for those with No technology experience, and expandable for those who want expanded use like using the built-in Android tablet touch-screen monitor.
The Reveal 16i incorporates a smart all-in-one device allowing low vision users to video chat with friends, check emails, watch videos on YouTube, download applications from Play Store, and have all the printed material read to you thanks to its integrated Optical character recognition and Text-to-speech screen reader capabilities that rival Virtual Vision.
Visually impaired users can also open their books and reading material and take digital notes before sharing them with others. The Reveal 16i also has a distance viewing camera, which is great for the classroom, conference room, watching TV, the bird-feeder, or checking out the neighbors. Amazing technology for both novice and most veteran users.
Tips For Using A Magnifier
- Start with the lens close to the eye and then bring the object towards the lens until it is in focus. This will give a wider field of view i.e. allow you to see more words at one time.
- Unless the magnifier has a low power you will only be able to use it with one eye. Where possible use it with the eye that has the best vision.
- If the image appears upside down when you look through the magnifier, the distance between the object and the magnifier is too great bring the object closer to the lens.
- When using a handheld or stand magnifier keep any movement slow and even to minimise the chance of losing your place.
- The centre of the lens gives the clearest, least distorted image. Do not read across the lens as the image will distort towards the edges.
- Make the first word as clear as possible. Once you have located your best viewing position, keep your head, eyes and the magnifier still, and move the object of your focus. This is known as Steady Eye Strategy.
Also Check: What Do Hiv Patients Look Like