Sadly, there are some people who still have vision problems even after using corrective lenses. These people have what is usually referred to as "low vision."
Low vision is usually associated with having difficulty watching TV, reading or other daily activities despite the use of glasses, contacts, and sometimes, even surgery. People who suffer from this eye condition are often left to use magnifying glasses or other devices to read. But now, there's a new tool that can help people with low vision read easier: the iPad.
According to a new study, consisting of two individual experiments, people not only read easier on the backlit tablet computer, but also read faster. Both segments of the study pitted reading print and reading on a tablet against each other and both proved that tablet reading is much more efficient.
The study states that people who read on an iPad versus a physical book read 42 more words per minute. And the reason is simple: Contrast.
Tablet computers, unlike the original eReaders which used "virtual ink," are backlit. This backlighting creates a high amount of contrast between the text and the whitespace, making the text easier to read. For people with low vision, this is a welcome sight because they no longer have to struggle to make out the words on the page.
Daniel Roth, MD told WebMD that people with low vision lose the ability to see objects stand out from their backgrounds, which is why the high contrast of the iPad's screen is so helpful.
"The magnified font and backlight allows them to improve their reading ability and comfort," he said.
Roth also said that while the baby boomer generation is aging and many of its members do suffer from eye problems, it's also a tech-savvy generation. That makes it easier to convince them to use iPads or other tablet computers to read.
It's also important to remember that while many people's eyesight dulls with age, regular eye exams can help identify any change in your vision. Make sure you're getting your eyes checked annually to keep your eyes functioning at their highest level possible.
