title: Television, computer and portable display device use by people with central vision impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To survey the viewing experience (e.g. hours watched, difficulty) and viewing metrics (e.g. distance viewed, display size) for television (TV), computers and portable visual display devices for normally-sighted (NS) and visually impaired participants. This information may guide visual rehabilitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Survey was administered either in person or in a telephone interview on 223 participants of whom 104 had low vision (LV, worse than 6/18, age 22-90 years, 54 males), and 94 were NS (visual acuity 6/9 or better, age 20-86 years, 50 males). Depending on their situation, NS participants answered up to 38 questions and LV participants answered up to a further 10 questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Many LV participants reported at least 'some' difficulty watching TV (71/103), reported at least 'often' having difficulty with computer displays (40/76) and extreme difficulty watching videos on handheld devices (11/16). The average daily TV viewing was slightly, but not significantly, higher for the LV participants (3.6 h) than the NS (3.0 h). Only 18% of LV participants used visual aids (all optical) to watch TV. Most LV participants obtained effective magnification from a reduced viewing distance for both TV and computer display. Younger LV participants also used a larger display when compared to older LV participants to obtain increased magnification. About half of the TV viewing time occurred in the absence of a companion for both the LV and the NS participants. The mean number of TVs at home reported by LV participants (2.2) was slightly but not significantly (p = 0.09) higher than NS participants (2.0). LV participants were equally likely to have a computer but were significantly (p = 0.004) less likely to access the internet (73/104) compared to NS participants (82/94). Most LV participants expressed an interest in image enhancing technology for TV viewing (67/104) and for computer use (50/74), if they used a computer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, both NS and LV participants had comparable video viewing habits. Most LV participants in our sample reported difficulty watching TV, and indicated an interest in assistive technology, such as image enhancement. As our participants reported that at least half their video viewing hours are spent alone and that there is usually more than one TV per household, this suggests that there are opportunities to use image enhancement on the TVs of LV viewers without interfering with the viewing experience of NS viewers.
authors.affiliation: Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. russell.woods@schepens.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Russell L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.forename: Premnandhini
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Satgunam
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D003146:Communications Media; D003201:Computers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013690:Television; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D055815:Young Adult