Grant: CIHR Fellowship

As our population ages, an increasing number of Canadians experience difficulties with their vision. Although it is well known that both normal aging and age-related eye disease can affect a person's ability to see fine detail (such as in reading), tests of visual acuity used in regular eye examinations do not provide a complete picture of a person's ability to see in everyday situations, such as exercising and driving, where moving objects are often involved. Moreover, these tests often demand verbal instructions and do not accommodate sufficiently for the multilingual population of Canada with a range of cognitive functions. We propose to develop an instruction-free test that uses an easy-to-use eye-tracking technology to assess vision with moving objects. This new test addresses the urgent need for accessible assessments for the increasing age of our multilingual population. Our research will gather the scientific evidence that is needed to determine if this test is accurate, and whether it is practical to introduce it into clinical practice. This quick and non-verbal method of assessing vision provides a potentially cost-effective vision assessment strategy that addresses an important population health issue.