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Senior Design Principles: Visual Acuity

by Max Baumgarten on June 1, 2010 · 0 comments

Optician putting a new pair of reading glasses on a patient.

Product-designers can account for the loss of visual acuity by increasing an item’s brightness, contrast, and size. In terms of visual acuity, elder friendliness is not always elusive.

A written text should be displayed in at least font size 12; buttons on a cell-phone should be around a quarter of an inch. But not all displays can be changed to assist those with low-acuity. In these cases it is up to each individual to be aware of his or her own surroundings and compensate for low visual acuity in other ways. For example, if a driver has trouble reading the words on a traffic signs, the driver must learn to identify the sign’s shape and color.

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