Multimodal Feedback as a Solution to Ocular Disease-Based User Performance Decrements in the Absence of Functional Visual Loss

This study examines effects of the most common cause of blindness in persons over the age of 55 in the United States, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), on the performance of older adults when completing a simple computer-based task. Older users with normal vision (n = 6) and with AMD (n = 6) performed a series of drag-and-drop tasks that incorporated a variety of different feedback modalities. The user groups were equivalent with respect to traditional visual function parameters (i.e., visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and color vision) and measured subject cofactors, aside from the presence or absence of AMD (i.e., drusen and retinal pigment epithelial mottling). Task performance was assessed with measures of time (trial time and feedback exposure time) and accuracy (error frequency). Results indicate that users with AMD exhibited decreased performance with respect to required feedback exposure time, total trial time, and errors committed. Some nonvisual and multimodal feedback forms show potential as solutions for enhanced performance, for those with AMD as well as for visually healthy older adults.