Informing Accessible Design Through Selfreported Quality of Visual Health

Abstract

This study investigates the potential utility of the VFQ-25 as an alternative to clinically acquired measures of visual function for investigations of computer-based performance. While clinical measures of visual function have been used as predictors of performance on psychomotor tasks for people with impaired vision, the VFQ-25 represents a low cost, easy-to-administer alternative. In this study, participants with Age-related Macular Degeneration and controls responded to the VFQ-25 and completed a drag-and-drop task with different feedback modalities. Based on VFQ scores, a hierarchical clustering algorithm was used to generate five distinct participant groups. Statistical comparisons of performance between the groups under each feedback condition confirmed the efficacy of the VFQ-25 as a tool for classifying user interaction. Consistent with previous studies comparing performance based solely on visual acuity, these results encourage the use of the VFQ-25 in research and design in circumstances that are not conducive to gathering clinically acquired measures.

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