Abstract
Purpose:Vertical reading is an adaptive reading strategy sometimes used in homonymous hemianopia. This study aimed to measure horizontal and vertical reading speeds in visually normal volunteers using the Radner Reading Chart.Methods:Fifteen orthoptic students, mean age 19.7 years, took part in this repeated measures study. Participants read sentences aloud from the Radner Reading Chart horizontally and rotated vertically, to read up and down the line. Words read correctly and the time taken to read each sentence were recorded.Results:Reading speeds were calculated (words read correctly per second) for horizontal text (2.95 words per second) and for vertical text, reading up the line (1.73 words per second) and reading down the line (1.57 words per second). Reading horizontal text was significantly faster than reading vertical text. Reading horizontal text was 1.22 words per second faster than reading text vertically up (p < 0.0001) and 1.38 words per second faster than text vertically down (p < 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference between reading text vertically up the line and vertically down the line (0.16 words per second, p = 0.42).Conclusion:Horizontal reading speed, measured with the Radner Reading Chart, was significantly faster than both vertical reading speeds. There was no significant difference between reading vertically up the line and reading vertically down the line. The slower time taken to read the vertically orientated sentences had a greater effect on reading speed than the number of errors made.
Highlights
Stroke is estimated to occur in more than 100,000 people per year in the UK (Stroke Association, 2018)
The Wilkins Rate of Reading Test presents simple words in a random order so that they do not form a sentence, yet a small number of short words are used in the test, raising the possibility that the test is easier to perform than the Radner Reading Chart used in our study
Clinical relevance of findings The results of the current study show that in healthy student volunteers with no visual problems, rotating text to read vertically significantly reduced reading speed as the time taken to read doubled
Summary
Stroke is estimated to occur in more than 100,000 people per year in the UK (Stroke Association, 2018). A person must be able to see three to four characters to the left and seven to eleven characters to the right of fixation (Kerkhoff, 2000). This is difficult for patients with visual field defects and visual strategies may be suggested to try and aid reading. Visual strategies include visual search exercises (Kerkhoff et al 2014), visual field awareness (Rowe et al 2013) and vertical reading (Friedman, 1982; Hepworth et al 2019) where the print is rotated 90 degrees to be presented vertically rather than horizontally. Rotating horizontal text to read vertically is more accessible and faster to read than producing spe-
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