Seeing the whole story
For many people, reading is an essential skill in everyday life. It can therefore have a significant impact if one’s reading ability suddenly deteriorates. People with homonymous hemianopia (HH) after acquired brain injury can no longer perceive part of their visual field (often half or a quarter). This can lead to reading problems, such as slower reading speed, reading errors and difficulty with text orientation. This doctoral thesis investigates methods for measuring reading and the potential effectiveness of two reading trainings for people with HH. A literature review of training studies for people with HH shows that reading speed is the most common measure. Self-report measures are less frequently included in reading training research, and no such measures were found where the quality of the instrument was known. This thesis therefore presents the development and qualities of a new questionnaire for reading complaints after HH: the Hemianopia Reading Questionnaire (HRQ). Further, two reading trainings are described that aim to improve reading in people with HH. In the Vistra training people learn to make different eye movements during reading, and in the (as yet little researched) Rotated Reading training, people learn to read rotated text that falls entirely within their intact field of vision. The effects were studied with task-performance (reading speed), self-report (HRQ) and interviews. The results demonstrated the potential of the two reading trainings to improve reading skills, as well as the importance of measuring reading at both task-performance and self-reported levels and identifying individual reading difficulties and goals.