Can iPads Help People With Low Vision?

You may think we are crazy to write a blog that asks if iPads can help people with low vision. How can a digital screen help people with eye problems? As far as we all know, any kind of digital screen can only harm the eyes, let alone helping. But, as professional eye specialists, we know what we are saying, and if we have a blog posted on this topic, there is definitely a reason behind it.

We would never advise people to use digital screens, and in fact, ask everyone to stay away from them as much as possible, but we understand that it is a world of technology, and completely avoiding such devices is impossible; especially for those who have a job or business that requires enough time on digital screens. But, what if you are suffering from an eye problem like low vision? It is important for you to work on digital screens, but your low vision problem is posing a difficulty for you to the same. If this is what you are facing, you are at the right place.

What is low vision?

First, let us understand what low vision is. Low vision is the problem in which people have trouble watching TV, reading newspapers, and doing other basic daily tasks in spite of wearing glasses or contact lenses. People who have been suffering from low vision have been highly relying on magnifying lens over time. But, to beat the discomfort of carrying and using magnifying lenses, several new experiments have been conducted to bring a better solution.

The study

A study was conducted for the problem mentioned above, in which two experiments were carried out. In the first experiment, 62 volunteers participated, from which more than 30 were suffering from a form of macular eye diseases. The volunteers were given three articles to read in two forms – computer print outs and on an iPad. The participants read the iPad articles better than they read from the printouts. But, this improvement was more evident among people suffering from low vision. In the seconds experiment, 100 participants were involved who were given a book chapter to be read on an iPad and over a Kindle. What resulted was that the volunteers read on the iPad and Kindle both at 12 points and 18 points. With both these experiments, it was thus found that all participants read faster on the iPad than over Kindle or the printouts. The reason behind this is that brightness improves vision, and tablets with a backlight boost contrast sensitivity, making it easy for the eye to distinguish an object against its background. Thus, because people with low vision have poor ability to contrast objects from their background, the magnified background light in an iPad magnifies the object on focus, thus improving a person’s vision on finer detail. This is the basic reason that explains why an iPad helps people suffering from low vision to read better.

So, if you are suffering from low vision, and if using a digital screen is important for you, you should make more use of iPads for a fast and comfortable reading. And, if you are looking to solve any eye problems, rather than finding alternatives to cover up for the problem, you can always walk into Arohi Eye Hospital for the fastest and best eye number correction in Oshiwara Mumbai.