Rater and algorithm data of maximum reading speed (MRS) and critical print size (CPS) of 101 low vision participants.

Data from participants with visual impairment were obtained from a larger dataset, that included more than 500 participants recruited from 4 hospitals, originally collected to study the prevalence and costs of visual impairment in Portugal (PCVIP-study) [18–20]. In the original study, participants were recruited if their medical records indicated at least one of the inclusion criteria: 1) visual acuity in the better seeing eye less than 0.5 decimal (i.e. 6/12; 20/40; 0.3 logMAR); 2) visual field less than 20 degrees. In the present work, we included data collected in only two sites because reading was always tested in the same room. Luminance in each room was respectively 682±7 lux and 455±10 lux, measured at 1m above the floor and away from a direct effect of a ceiling light. Reading curves were obtained binocularly with participants’ “presenting reading glasses”. Reading data was excluded from analysis when the number of data-points corresponded to less than five sentences on the MNREAD test. We ended with a dataset of 101 reading curves. The study protocol was reviewed by the ethics committee for Life Sciences and Health of the University of Minho (REF: SECVS-084/2013) and was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. The study was registered with the Portuguese data protection authority with the reference 9936/2013 and received approval number 5982/2014.

MNREAD data
Reading performance was measured for each participant using the Portuguese version of the MNREAD acuity chart [21]. Reading distance was adjusted for each participant, to either 20 or 40 cm, according to his/her near visual acuity. Participants were asked to read the chart aloud as fast and accurately as possible, one sentence at a time, starting from the largest print size. For each sentence, reading time and number of misread words were recorded and reported on
a score sheet by the experimenter. Data were then transferred into a digital file and further processed in R [22]. For each individual test, a corresponding MNREAD curve was plotted using the mnreadR package [23] to display log reading speed as a function of print size (see S1 Appendix for all 101 curves). Because the shape of the curve can influence visual estimation of the reading parameters, reading speed was plotted using a logarithmic scale so that reading
speed variability (which is proportional to the overall measure of reading speed) was constant at all speeds.

The dataset was originally published in DiVA and moved to SND in 2024. Show less..