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8. Reading and understanding signs and symbols
Hi,
Can anybody tell me please what is considered standard size text for the purposes of this activity?
Client was observed at his assessment to read size N14 print from a near vision chart, but I don’t know if this is considered standard print or not?
There is also an issue as the client is a Czech National and has no real grasp of written English. It says he read the sentence from the chart ‘independently and correctly’. But am I right in thinking that the correct approach is to look at the claimants ability to read and understand information in their native language? So if he has read something basic in English, then should this be ignored? He may have read it, but there is no way of really knowing whether or not he understood it.
He has listed in his PIP 2 that he needs to use a magnifying glass to read print at home. He had his left eye removed as a child following an accident, and experiences blurred vision in his right eye as a complication of Diabetes, but the assessor (who I don’t think Is a qualified person under 9(5) as she only registered in November 2013) states that he read from the near vision chart and has no learning disability and therefore has no issues reading and understanding.
Baffling!!!!!
I think the idea behind this particular descriptor is due to a disability causing the lack of ability to read/understand print, not an inability to understand due to translation issues.
I would have thought however that a magnifying glass is an aid or adaptation that would score something on the aforementioned descriptor, as i believe that only reading glasses are ignored for this activity.
Thoughts?
I think the idea behind this particular descriptor is due to a disability causing the lack of ability to read/understand print, not an inability to understand due to translation issues.
I would have thought however that a magnifying glass is an aid or adaptation that would score something on the aforementioned descriptor, as i believe that only reading glasses are ignored for this activity.
Thoughts?
The translation issued was only brought up because of the wording in the regulations which states that the text or print should be in their native language, so asking him to read something in English during the assessment just doesn’t seem right, when his native language is Czech.
As you say, the issue is with the fact that he needs to use a magnifying glass to read print, but the key is determining what is considered to be standard print and whether he would need a magnifying glass for that size of print. If he needs to use a magnifier for size 6,8 and 10 font but can read 12, and 12 is standard then the case becomes a lot harder to argue.
So he can make out individual symbols from a Snellen chart? Can he read more than one sentence in standard text in his native language? He might be able to squint and make out A, B C D but jumble up a whole alphabet into sentences and it takes a lot more comprehension and field of vision to understand it.
That’s exactly it Dan. They have asked him to read 1 sentence, but that wouldn’t assess the ability to read complex information, so surely the test is flawed in that sense. When ive met with him, h has struggled to read and has used a magnifier to read some things. I think it all depends on how blurred his vision is with his right eye. Some days it will be better than others.
There is a danger of confusing what they asked him to do with what the activity is.
1) There is no standard size text for this test or indeed for anything. There are no agreed standards as such. Reading so far on a Snellen means you are judged to be able to read a number plate on your driving test. It has no bearing on whether you will be able to do so on the day or your competence on the road. Being able to read so far down a Snellen will get you classified as sight impaired or severely so. Again though, these are arbitrary divisions and often based on flimsy and decades old science at best.
The key to this activity is the phrase “signs, symbols and words” and the words “read” and/or “understand”. The size of the text only has a bearing on understanding in 2 respects. 1 is whether the text is large enough to read. If you can’t read it then obviously you can’t understand it. On the other hand, it may be large enough but in serif, which for many eye conditions renders it next to useless. N14 on a near vision test is only approximate as it will depend on the font used; the distance held from the eyes; the light in the room; the direction of the light in the room; the steadiness of the hand holding the card and many other variables. Bear in mind that what is N14 on the page is not N14 on the screen necessarily and that there are several Snellen variants as Snellen is an unreliable test of many, many aspects of vision. It’s useful for a high street optician to sell you designer specs. but often little else.
2) Your ability to read and/or understand signs or symbols is not tested by that test. Nor is your ability out of doors; on a PC or a tablet; in a crowded environment and in darkness and so on. It is but a tiny aspect of the activity being tested. It’s also a snapshot, which breaches their own guidance.
3) I think it’s inaccurate and unhelpful to think of variations in vision as being variable in terms of days. Our vision varies from minute to minute. At the end of the day you may be able to say how the day felt overall compared to say the previous day but that tells you nothing. Overall today, given my lack of sleep and the fact I’ve been on duty all day working at home on a large screen monitor since about 7:30am, I am having a good eye day. However, there have been moments today when my vision has let me down badly and one moment when I spotted something in a paragraph that someone else did not. Overall it’s a better day then yesterday when I read little but what little I read caused me headaches (or was that the wine?) but what does that tell you about my ability overall to read stuff? Pretty much nothing can be drawn from the outcome of 1 test. The real issue is around reliability, repetition, the impact on my health of straining to read and the length of time it takes. I’m seeing nothing in this face to face to suggest those issues arose or were considered. I think they’re key.
4) I think you’re on solid ground with the magnifier as an aid. However, I would query how he got it. Did he just decide he needed one and go out and buy one or was it as a consequence of a low vision assessment? It’s wrong though to think it in terms of what size print does he need the magnifier for and is that standard or large or whatever. When you need a vision aid is not down to text size alone. That’s a common mistake. Again, to give myself as an example. I can read 12 point font. I can read it at various points of the day. I can lean in and read smaller. However, doing all that will give me headaches sometimes; will exhaust me on others and will reduce the amount I can read overall in a given period. What I need is 18 point. Not because I can’t read anything smaller but because it’s the only way I can get through the day without falling asleep or a getting a headache. I use a monocular out of doors. It was prescribed as part of a low vision assessment. There was nothing prescribed about me having it because I pass some kind of threshold test. I use it when I need to use it. “Need” varies.
On a good day with little traffic I can use visual cues like the bus colours and the numbers on my live bus data app to deduce which bus number is coming up. I still use the monocular but because I can’t trust my vision (or indeed live data) 100%. On other days; when the stop or the road is crowded; when I am tired after work; when the sunlight is in my eyes or the darkness is making every light an explosion I need my monocular and nothing else. Spectacularly it’s variable focus so I can put it to my eye, focus it, put it down and then 30 seconds later put it to the same eye to look at the same thing and see nowt but blur.
The size of the bus numbers alone in these scenarios is not the relevant thing. Ditto the size of any text he reads. It’s all the other stuff that counts.
5) I would want to know specifically why he has blurred vision. What’s the issue? Who has he seen about it?