A comparison of low vision aids for reading rehabilitation in low vision students

Abstract

Objective To study the effectiveness of 2 different low vision aids for reading rehabilitation:the aspheric optical aid and the portable electronic aid; to provide guidelines for visual rehabilitation.Methods This was a prospective case-control study.Thirty students were selected from the Peiying Vocational School to participate in the study.Subjects read material under 3 conditions:no low visual aid (NL),the new aspheric optical low vision aid (NA) and the portable electronic low vision aid (PE).The reading order was randomly established before the test.A voice recorder was used to record and measure reading distance when subjects read the material.After each trial,students were asked which low vision aid was better.Reading duration,reading distance,reading speed,line changing time and error rate were calculated.Finally,SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data from the trials in a one-way ANOVA.Results There were significant differences in reading duration (4.35±2.82 min vs.7.27±4.50 min vs.10.71±3.09 min,F=4.60,P＜0.01),reading distance (7.44±4.40 cm vs.13.38±7.07 cm vs.20.97±6.84 cm,F=11.21,P＜0.01),reading speed (35.64±24.01 words/min vs.49.41±24.96 words/min vs.65.59±20.03 words/min,F=13.77,P＜0.01),line changing time (1.52±1.13 s vs.2.24±1.25 s vs.3.42±0.94 s,F=7.40,P＜0.01)and error rate (10.34±11.01％ vs.5.84±3.61％ vs.5.26±2.72％,F=1.79,P=0.03) under the 3 conditions.PE was significantly superior to NA in reading duration (P＜0.0167),reading distance (P＜0.0167),and reading speed (P＜0.0167).NA was significantly superior to NL in reading duration (P＜0.0167),reading distance (P＜0.0167),and reading speed (P＜0.0167).PE was not significantly superior to NA (P＞0.0167) and NA was not significantly superior to NL in error rate (P＞0.0167).However,PE was significantly superior to NL (P＜0.0167).PE took significantly longer than NL (P＜0.0167) and NA (P＜0.0167) for line changing time.NA took significantly longer than NL for line changing time (P＜0.0167).Conclusion Low vision aids are very helpful for low vision students in reading,and the portable electronic low vision aid was superior to the new aspheric low vision aid in reading rehabilitation. Key words: Low vision; Low vision aids; Reading rehabilitation