A Comparison of the Handwriting Abilities of Secondary Students with Visual Impairments and those of Sighted Students

Abstract

Visual impairment affects approximately 1.8 million people in Australia (Resnikoff et al., 2004) and is defined as a visual acuity or equivalent field loss of less than 6/18 (20/60) by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (World Health Organization, 2010). A variety of conditions can cause visual impairment, including cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, trachoma (Bourne et al., 2013), retinitis pigmentosa, optic atrophy, albinism, and congenital nystagmus (Haymes, Johnston, & Heyes, 2002). Despite the large number of people with visual impairments in Australia, all Western Australian secondary students are required to complete their secondary exams using handwriting, unless they qualify for special provisions. Students with visual impairments do not necessarily qualify for special provisions on the basis of their visual impairment alone. It is hypothesized that students with visual impairments in Western Australia experience more difficulties with handwriting than their fully sighted peers, which can potentially limit their optimal performance. Despite advances in technology and computer use within schools, a considerable portion of the school day in Australia is comprised of handwriting tasks (Graham et al., 2008; Marr, Cermak, Cohn, & Henderson, 2003; Ziviani & Watson-Will, 1998). For individuals with visual impairments, the use of handwriting can be challenging (Markowitz, 2006). Handwriting combines visual-motor abilities, motor skills, and coordination (Kaiser, Albaret, & Doudin, 2009). Factors that increase the likelihood of experiencing handwriting difficulties include decreased eye-hand coordination, visual ability, kinesthesia, sensory awareness, motor planning, and posture (Cornhill & Case-Smith, 1996; Karlsdottir & Steffansson, 2002). Many of these factors have the potential to be improved with the correct intervention. A permanent or progressive reduction in vision due to visual impairment, however, cannot be easily corrected. The only existing literature on the effect of visual impairment on handwriting indicates that impairment of specific ocular structures or eye conditions can result in specific handwriting difficulties (Arter, McCall, & Bowyer, 1996). For example, for a person with a narrow visual field, the corresponding inability to see an entire word can make copying tasks arduous; and conditions that cause blurry vision may make it difficult to distinguish letter and word forms (Arter et al., 1996). A person with visual impairment, therefore, is more likely to experience difficulties such as lower legibility of handwriting and slower writing speed (Uysal & Aki, 2012); and difficulties with forming letters and maintaining even spacing, size, slant, and alignment of letters (Bonney, 1992; Yalo, Indoshi, & Agak, 2012). Keyboarding as an alternative method of communication (Arter et al., 1996) does not assist students with visual impairments who use handwriting for the completion of school assignments. Assistive technology can play an important role in helping students with visual impairments with their education, but many students feel it does not replace the need for a method to produce handwritten assignments. For example, secondary school students with visual impairments state that although technology is useful, they enjoy having the ability to choose between technology and writing (D'Andrea, 2012). Furthermore, technology may stop working or be unavailable during servicing and can be expensive (D'Andrea, 2012). And one student with visual impairment stated that having the option of writing enabled her to be more equal to people around her, as it enabled her to write down phone numbers and quick messages without having to start up a computer (D'Andrea, 2012). Handwriting has also been shown to be superior in contributing to students' understanding of what they are writing to typing out the same content (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). …