Difficulties in reading small print materials on today's home appliances for people with visual impairment

Macular degeneration (MD) is a major cause of visual impairment and blindness among elderly people in developed nations. Reading small print size on the most domestic appliances is difficult for these people. A study was run whereby 31 people with MD were interviewed in-depth individually to explore their lived experiences in regards to their difficulties in performing daily living activities in the home environment. Results indicate reading difficulties not only exist for reading books, reading recipes for cooking, newspapers and letters, but are also influential in reading small size print on the microwave oven, reading the remote control or the television (TV), reading kitchen appliance settings and the dishwasher, as well as difficulty outside of the home. To conclude, current designs of home appliances and their remote controls reportedly have visual displays which make difficulties for people with visual impairment. A new design of magnifiers that which are optimised for use with home appliances and remote controls, perhaps being attachable and detachable to the devices in question, making it useable and handy for all reading activities may be one optically based solution which needs to be explored.