MNREAD 2000 project

Welcome to the MNREAD 2000 web site: a general reseource and collectingpoint for information concerning the MNREAD 2000 project.

Introduction

Many of us were able to meet at the Lighthouse in New York on July 14to discuss reading-acuity testing. The meeting was both informative andproductive. Although we identified some challenging issues related to thedesign of continuous text charts, there was strong consensus on most keydesign principles. There was also consensus that modern clinical eye careand vision research need good tests of functional vision, particularlyreading.

There is no doubt that various designs of reading-acuity charts couldimplement the key design principles. In other words, there is no single"right" way to design such charts. But many of us feel that collectiveeffort and a common design could enhance international collaboration inclinical practice and research.

At the New York meeting, we made an informal decision to proceed withcollaborative development of reading-acuity charts in several languages. The plan is to base the designs on the MNREAD Acuity Chart.

It was proposed and agreed that:

1. we seek firm commitments fromcolleaguesinterested in developing charts
2. we agree to a target completiondata early in the year 2000 (Feb. 1).
3. Completion of the charts would befollowed by a brief period of data collection on all versions of thecharts
4. to be followed by an initial project publication later in the year2000.

Groups already (or likely to be) committed to MNREAD chart developmentinclude:

English

Steve Mansfield: stevem@eye.psych.umn.edu
Gordon Legge: legge@eye.psych.umn.edu
Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research, University of Minnesota,Minneapolis, USA.

Japanese

Koichi Oda: k-oda@twcu.ac.jp

Italian

Gianni Virgili: gianni.virgili@dsc.uniud.it

French

Olga Overbury: overbury@vax2.concordia.ca
Jacques Gresset: gressetj@ere.umontreal.ca

Norwegian, Swedish, Danish

Rolf Lund: rolf.lund@isp.uio.no

Spanish

Jordi Monés: jmones@nacom.es

Your suggestions of additional colleagues/languagesare most welcome.

This web site includes documents that may be helpful inbeginningthe process of developing MNREAD acuity charts. One document lists generaldesign principles and their implementation inthe English version ofMNREAD. The second document provides a brief outline of the steps onemight expect to follow in developing an MNREAD chart.

Comments forcorrecting or updating these documents are most welcome.

Additionally, follow the link to mntest forasimple javascript program to help in the creation of mnread formatsentences.