Understanding low vision reading

Reading difficulties usually accompany low vision. This article presents an overview of a series of psychophysical studies dealing with visual factors that influence normal and low vision reading. Despite fears that the heterogeneity of low vision conditions might be too great to yield general principles, this research has uncovered distinctions, such as the presence or absence of central vision, that predict reading performance. Moreover, the findings indicate that the visual requirements of reading are modest and within the capacity of most low vision subjects. This research establishes optimal stimulus conditions for low vision reading, the best reading performance that low vision individuals may hope to achieve, new methods of visual assessment, and principles for the design of new low vision reading devices.