Blindness or vision impairment can affect an employee’s ability to read written text and thus impact on their accuracy and productivity for tasks involving reading within the workplace.
Workplace solutions and adjustments
Making simple adjustments to the way text is written can enable an individual with visual impairment to read written text. Adjustments such as writing using a bold dark pen and using printed letters rather than lower case or cursive letters can enable written text to be read more easily. Correct lighting can also be fundamental in being able to read written text:
In cases where these simple adjustments may not be satisfactory to enable an individual with visual impairment to read written text, there are other supports that may be beneficial:
Written text can also be translated into onscreen text and can be accessed using assistive and adaptive technology:
For individuals that are blind and prefer the use of Braille to read written text, adaptive technology is also available:
References
Independent Living Centres Australia 2007, Product Review, Independent Living Centres Australia, Canberra, viewed 15 March 2010, <http://www.ilcaustralia.org/search4.asp?State=ACT&MC=62&MinC=48&Item=2593&page=2 \>.
Vision Australia 2007, Handwriting, Vision Australia, Enfield, viewed 15 March 2010, < http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=1511>.