w6 reading w/ ARMD

Question 1

what is ARMD

Answer 1

Age related Macula Degeneration

Question 2

what are the 2 types of macular disease and how do they differ??

Answer 2

Dry AMD: slow progression, no treatment, involves gradual retinal cell death
Wet AMD: Rapid progression, some treatment available, caused by abnormal blood vessel growth and leakage

Question 3

what percentage of macular disease cases are dry vs wet??

Answer 3

dry ~ 80% wet ~ 10-20%

Question 4

what are everyday activities that can be affected by ARMD?

Answer 4

readinf, recognising faces adn facial expressions, cooking, driving, sports, leisure and overall independence

Question 5

why is is diff reading with peripheral vision in ARMD patients??

Answer 5

due to decreased retinal cell density, poor contrast sensitivity, crowding effects and insufficient eye movements

Question 6

what is crowding and how does it affect vision in ARMD?

Answer 6

Crowding is when adjacent letters or objects interfere with idnentifying a target letter, mainly affecting peripheral not central vision

Question 7

why doesn’t bold text help ARMD patients?

Answer 7

bold letters increase the crowding effect making them harder to distinguish in peripheral vision

Question 8

what is RSVP(Rapid Serial Visual Presentation) and why hasn’t it gained traction?

Answer 8

It’s a technique for reading without eye movements but its hasn’t been widely accepted by ppl w/ ARMD due to practical challenges

Question 9

How does peripheral vision differ from foveal vision in processing visual info??

Answer 9

peripheral vision is better for motion detection but worse for colour and detail, it also suffers from attentional and crowding issues

Question 10

how does exaggerated spacing in text help ARMD patients??

Answer 10

it reduces crowding and unnecessary eye movements, improving readability

Question 11

what are the best typography tips for ARMD freindly reading material??

Answer 11

use double line and word spacing
avoid bolding
use left justification only
structure paragraphs as blocks
ensure high contrast text

Question 12

what are drusen and what do they indicate??

Answer 12

drusen are yellow deposits under the retina adn their presence is a hallmark sign of dry macualr degeneration

Question 13

what are common causes of macular disease??

Answer 13

age, genetics, smoking, poor diet, high BP, excessive sunlight exposure

Question 14

what is the difference in visual cell distribution bet the fovea and peripheral retina??

Answer 14

the fovea has high conc of cones for detail and colour while periphery has more rods and is better for motion detection but worse for colour and detail

Question 15

why does reading become harder as vision moves away from the fovea?

Answer 15

retinal cell density decreases lowering the ability to see fine detail

Question 16

why are patients with ARMD often poor at making eye movements??

Answer 16

because they lose their sharp central vision, its harder for them to aim their eyes properly when reading or looking at things so their eyes dont move as smoothly or accurately

Question 17

why is left justification better for ppl w/ low vision?

Answer 17

left justified text has a straight left edge and even spacing between words making it easier to read, right justified text creates uneven spaces that can confuse the eyes.

Question 18

why are first-line indents bad for visually impaired readers??

Answer 18

ppl w/ low vision may not notice small indents, making it hard to identify new paragraphs hence why there shoudl be paragraph spacing showing evident paragraph blocks

Question 19

why is high contrast imp for ppl with macular disease??

Answer 19

many patients suffer from reduced contrast sensitivity, so high contrast improves visibility and legibility

Question 20

what role do cortical processes play in peripheral vision reading difficulties??

Answer 20

they affect object recognition and attention, making reading harder even with scaled up text sizes

Question 21

what casues Maxwell’s spot and how is it used in macular testing??

Answer 21

it’s a dim spot from absorption of blue light by macular pigment, useful for assessing macular health and function

Question 22

how does crowding impact reading in ARMD patients??

Answer 22

it makes it hard to distinguish individual letters or words when they are too close tg, severely reducing reading speed and accuracy

Question 23

What is a good way to reduce the effect of crowding in text?

Answer 23

Increase word spacing and line spacing, but avoid increasing letter spacing, as that can disrupt word recognition.

Question 24

Why doesn’t letter spacing help with crowding?

Answer 24

It interferes with the natural shape of words, making them harder to recognise even if the crowding effect is reduced.

Question 25

why is reading difficult with peripheral vision??

Answer 25

Retinal cell density drops (cones and ganglion cells) the further you move from the centre of the retina, which causes a big drop in how clearly we see. Making text bigger helps a bit, but not much. Central and peripheral vision are processed differently in the brain – the peripheral retina has more rods, so it’s better at detecting motion but worse at seeing colour and detail. Attention also works differently in peripheral vision. Eye movements are less accurate in people with macular disease, making reading harder. Visual crowding happens when letters or objects are too close together and become hard to tell apart. This is worse in peripheral vision and is one of the biggest problems for reading when central vision is lost.