I W Bruce¹, M Baker²
¹Royal National Institute for the Blind/City University, London, Director General's Office (RNIB), London, United Kingdom; ²Royal National Institute for the Blind, Public Policy Office (RNIB), London, United Kingdom
Background/purpose
The purpose is to understand better how visually impaired people (v.i.ps) access text information and what their preferences are, in order to advise text producers reaching the 2 million people in the UK with serious sight problems.
Method
A robust national sample of 1076 adults (ranging from totally blind to "unable to recognise a friend across the road" and recruited through stratified random sampling) were interviewed in their homes by interviewers from the UK Office of National Statistics using a detailed questionnaire. Results are analysed by acuity levels, age and other criteria.
Results and conclusions
Examples of what people say they find difficult or impossible to read are bus numbers (72%), TV captions (72%), food packet instructions (85%), electronic displays (64%), medicine labels (73%) and demand for access is prioritised between 20 categories. Identical questions to a separate sample of 2000 of the general public, show figures of 11%, 14%, 25%, 13% and 21% respectively.
Among the v.i.p. sample 3% have learnt braille, with considerable unmet demand for braille learning. The audio (a) computer (b) and personal reader (c) sections report usage (a 78%: b 11%: c 44%), rates of usage, unmet demand, reasons for non-usage etc. Finally we consider "reading" by all methods with 11% saying they read more, 28%, the same and 61% less than before their sight deteriorated. We conclude with recommendations on increased contrast and size of print and multi-media provision for the general public as well as v.i.ps.
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