Footballers with vision impairment (VI) are eligible to compete in the Para sport if they meet a minimum impairment criteria (MIC) based on measures of their visual acuity (VA) and/or visual field. ...Despite the requirements of the International Paralympic Committee Athlete Classification Code that each sport uses an evidence-based classification system, VI football continues to use a medical-based system that lacks evidence to demonstrate the relationship between impairment and performance in the sport. The aim of this study was to systematically simulate vision loss to establish the minimum level of impairment that would affect performance in futsal. Nineteen skilled sighted players completed tests of individual technical skill and anticipation performance under six levels of simulated blur that decreased both VA and contrast sensitivity (CS). VA needed to be reduced to a level of acuity that represents worse vision than that currently used for inclusion in VI football before meaningful decreases in performance were observed. CS did not have a clear effect on football performance. These findings produce the first evidence for the minimum impairment criteria in VI football and suggest a more severe degree of impairment may be required for the MIC.
People with blindness and visual impairments have reduced access to exercise compared to the general population during typical societal functioning. The Coronavirus-19 pandemic completely disrupted ...daily life for most individuals worldwide, and in the United Kingdom, a stay-at-home order was enforced. One of the sole reasons an individual could leave their home was for the purpose of daily exercise. Here, we examined how the UK national lockdown impacted access to exercise for people with blindness and visual impairment. We used a mixed methods design, collecting quantitative data from two established measures (the Exercise Barriers and Benefits Scale and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire), and qualitative data from open-ended questions. We found that, during the initial stages of the lockdown, perceived barriers to exercise increased compared to pre-pandemic levels, driven by factors, such as the closure of exercise facilities and additional difficulties posed by social distancing. Interestingly, during the later stages of the UK Coronavirus-19 response, perceived barriers decreased to lower than pre-pandemic levels. Thematic analysis indicated that this may have been due to participants finding new online methods to exercise at home, in combination with the tentative reopening of facilities.
ABSTRACTUnderstanding how the outdoor environment shapes the community mobility of people with visual disabilities is key to designing an accessible public realm and facilitating their rights to use ...outdoor spaces. A scoping review was conducted to explore 1) What aspects of the built environment affect the community mobility of persons with visual disabilities? and 2) How does the built environment affect the community mobility of persons with visual disabilities? Forty-three peer-reviewed publications from 2000 to 2022 were included after conducting database searches, screening of articles, and data charting. Studies focused on micro-environmental features related to sidewalks and crosswalks (e.g. landmarks, curbs, curb ramps, tactile warning/guiding surfaces, and accessible pedestrian signals), and broad environmental factors (e.g. neighbourhood amenities and street layout) and their influence on orientation, wayfinding, and safety. The paper discusses the role of the built environment in 1) posing barriers to outdoor mobility (e.g. potholes, poorly designed curb cuts, obstacles at waist-height or eye-level, poor lighting, inadequate pedestrian signal, complicated street layout), and 2) offering cues (e.g. visual, tactile, auditory, olfactory, kinaesthetic) for spatial perception and navigation. Focusing on how the built environment shapes community mobility is necessary to enhance accessibility through urban planning and design and assistive technology.
•Visually impaired cyclists do not necessarily take safer routes than normally sighted peers.•Visually impaired cyclists spent more time travelling at low speed than normally sighted peers.•Visually ...impaired cyclists had a lower ‘cruising speed’ than normally sighted peers.•Cycling video recordings may not replace traditional cycling assessment in vision rehabilitation, but they could serve as a screening tool.
This study investigated whether visually impaired cyclists, compared to cyclists without visual limitations, take other, potentially safer routes to destinations in their own living environment and whether they ride at a lower speed. In total, 19 matched pairs of a visually impaired cyclist and a normally sighted peer from the same neighbourhood recorded their everyday bicycle rides, using GPS action cameras. In addition, they completed an ‘assigned ride’, a ride for which only a starting and an ending point were provided by the researcher. A risk-assessment procedure showed that the route taken by visually impaired cyclists during this assigned ride was not less risky than the route taken by the normally sighted cyclists. Analysis of the everyday rides showed that, on average, cyclists with a visual impairment more frequently (i.e. for longer periods) cycled at a speed below 10 km/h compared to cyclists without visual impairment. Also, the visually impaired participants’ cruising speed was 1.4 km/h lower than that of their normally sighted counterparts. In conclusion, no evidence was found that visually impaired cyclists compensate strategically by taking different, potentially safer routes than normally sighted cyclists when riding in their own environment. They may (unconsciously) compensate tactically for their visual function limitations by riding at a lower speed when necessary. Mobility trainers in vision rehabilitation as well as road designers could apply these findings to optimise the cycling mobility of visually impaired people.
For patients to enjoy the benefits of vision impairment registration, they need to be certified by an ophthalmologist. There have been concerns about barriers and a lack of awareness of benefits and ...certification criteria among ophthalmologists leading to under-registration. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the certification process in terms of potential barriers, clinical decision-making, and understanding of current guidelines and registration benefits.
Ophthalmologists completed a survey on understanding registration benefits and barriers for certification (n = 22) and a survey on clinical decision-making in certification (n = 21). Furthermore, visual function and registration data were collected at a hospital Low Vision Clinic in Edinburgh from all new referrals (n = 89) over a 4-month period from August to November 2020. Our study showed that the main barriers for vision impairment certification were insufficient awareness of registration benefits, uncertainty of when to certify, and a lack of time in clinic. Ophthalmologists were more confident about certification of ocular versus neurological visual impairment. In terms of clinical decision-making, the ophthalmologists’ survey placed most importance on visual-field assessments, followed by visual acuity. Very little importance was placed on contrast sensitivity. Our findings suggest that ophthalmologists would benefit from more education into the benefits of registration and more guidance when registering patients with neurological conditions affecting functional vision in particular. It may be beneficial to highlight the role of contrast sensitivity during the certification process to ophthalmologists.
Purpose The current predominant delivery format resulting from digitization is PDF, which is not appropriate for the blind, partially sighted and people who read on mobile devices. To meet the needs ...of both communities, as well as broader ones, alternative file formats are required. With the findings of the eBooks-On-Demand-Network Opening Publications for European Netizens project research, this study aims to improve access to digitized content for these communities. Design/methodology/approach In 2022, the authors conducted research on the digitization experiences of 13 EODOPEN partners at their organizations. The authors distributed the same sample of scans in English with different characteristics, and in accordance with Web content accessibility guidelines, the authors created 24 criteria to analyze their digitization workflows, output formats and optical character recognition (OCR) quality. Findings In this contribution, the authors present the results of a trial implementation among EODOPEN partners regarding their digitization workflows, used delivery file formats and the resulting quality of OCR results, depending on the type of digitization output file format. It was shown that partners using the OCR tool ABBYY FineReader Professional and producing scanning outputs in tagged PDF and PDF/UA formats achieved better results according to set criteria. Research limitations/implications The trial implementations were limited to 13 project partners’ organizations only. Originality/value This research paper can be a valuable contribution to the field of massive digitization practices, particularly in terms of improving the accessibility of the output delivery file formats.
Am I missing something? Whitney, Gill; Kolar, Irena
Universal access in the information society,
06/2020, Letnik:
19, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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People with a visual impairment are more likely to experience social isolation as an effect of their vision loss. Social media can particularly benefit these users, but it is of concern if it cannot ...be fully and successfully used. This study was instigated at the request of an advisory group of visual impaired users and experts. The aim of the study was to investigate potential accessibility issues visually impaired users could encounter when using social media. A major concern was over missing content embedded in images on social media sites. A subsequent evaluation of Facebook posts carried out by a group of student participants demonstrated that nearly half of images considered contained embedded text, which would be inaccessible to visually impaired users. Despite efforts by social media companies to improve accessibility, any text present in images is not presented in an accessible way to visually impaired users. This research demonstrated the inequality that can arise from partial accessibility and the requirement to consider accessibility at all stages of design and development.
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