COLOURED OVERLAY SCREENER

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Colour and Reading difficulties
There is growing evidence that some people with apparently normal eyesight, experience discomfort when reading a page of print. Some report that the words appear to "move", "wobble" or "flicker" while others say that the page appears too bright or the words are too close together. This condition has become known as Meares-Irlen syndrome. Those affected by the condition may skip words or lines when reading. Others report "eyestrain" or headaches after reading.

For reasons that are poorly understood, these symptoms are often relieved by placing a coloured overlay over the print or by wearing coloured spectacles. The colour required to achieve the optimum relief varies between individuals and may change over time.

The Coloured Overlay Screener is a computer program designed to determine if someone is likely to benefit from using a coloured overlay while reading and helps to determine the optimum colour.

The program is designed to be used by teachers, educational psychologists, optometrists, orthoptists or others with an interest in reading difficulties. The program is quick and easy to use and is already used by over 600 schools and clinics.

. Here is what the reviewers and users say:

“The Coloured Overlay Screener has made it possible to screen all the children in the school for Meares-Irlen syndrome”

“Manual screening is laborious and prone to errors. This program brings some logic to what is often a rather haphazard process.”

“The program reliably identifies those who are likely to benefit from using an overlay and the colour selection is usually spot on.”

“The database and reporting functions save a huge amount of time.”

 

HOW IT WORKS

The City Coloured Overlay Screener is based on the screening protocol devised by Professor Arnold Wilkins for the Intuitive Overlays. This involves placing a series of coloured overlays over a sample of text in order to determine which colour overlay (if any) minimises the symptoms. The effectiveness of the overlays are assessed using a test devised by Professor Wilkins known as the Rate of Reading. The Intuitive Overlay system has been thoroughly tested and validated. However, the screening process is time-consuming and somewhat tedious.

The City Coloured Overlay Screener simulates the effect of overlays by changing the background colour over a portion of the screen. The program automates the screening process making it quicker and more efficient. An evaluation of the system at the Institute of Optometry showed a good correlation between the colours selected by the program compared with manual screening.

 

SCREEN CALIBRATION

Screen calibration: It is important that the screen colours are well-matched to the coloured overlays.

Because the colour reproduction of monitors differs somewhat, the user is required to visually check the screen colour against each overlay and make any necessary adjustment.

The program includes a variety of colour palettes to simulate the overlay colours under different illuminants, e.g. daylight, tungsten and fluorescent.

THE TESTS

Baseline symptoms: The patient views a passage of text on the screen against a white background and is asked to rate the severity of any symptoms they may experience.
 

Baseline rate of reading: The patient is required to read a paragraph or random words against a white background. The number of words read in one minute and the number of errors made is recorded. This forms a baseline for the fluency of reading.
 

Manual screening: Two paragraphs of random words are displayed side by side on the screen. The background colour of each paragraph can be changed by clicking on a colour palette.

This allows a manual comparison of two overlay colours which can be useful for confirmation purposes.
 

Automated screening: Two overlay colours are presented simultaneously and the patient is required to select the “more comfortable” colour. The computer uses a sophisticated algorithm to compare different combinations of colours in order to determine the best colour overall. This algorithm generates a number of indices describing the consistency of the patient’s responses.
 

Rate of reading with preferred colour: Having determined the preferred colour, the program repeats the rate of reading test with this colour in order to establish if the overlay improves the fluency of reading. An improvement of 10% is generally considered to be the threshold for prescribing a coloured overlay.

 

Preferred colour for computer screens: Many people spend just as long looking at computer screens as printed papers. If they benefit from using a coloured overlay for normal reading they are also likely to benefit from changing the background colour of their computer screen. This can be easily done under most versions of Windows.

The Coloured Overlay Screener includes a useful test for determing the optimum computer screen colour.
 

REPORTS AND ADMIN FUNCTIONS

Database: The Coloured Overlay Screener includes a powerful integrated database for storing results and generating reports. Full details of every screening are stored automatically avoiding the need to take any notes during the test.
 

Database: The program presents a visual comparison of the symptoms and rate of reading result with and without a coloured overlay.
 

Database: Results of the coloured overlay screening are presented on a color map showing the patient’s colour preferences and indicating the reliability of their responses.
 

Reports: The Coloured Overlay Screener includes a powerful report generator. Produce clear and attractive reports using the templates included or design your own reports.
 

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