Quote:
Originally Posted by Deskisamess
I have mild nystagmus, caused by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, and am not too bothered by it, unless I'm very tired. Narrow columns help me, as does wider line spacing. Horizontal tracking, like that used in many video games, is very tough for me.
Are you bothered by animated icons etc. online? I am, to the point where I have to block moving ads etc. on some sites in order to use the site. There is someone on this forum with an animated ant on their avatar, which sends me right out of the thread.
A few years ago one of our son's was playing with a hearing test app, and it sent me to bed for 2 days. No one could hear what I could, it was like a silent dog whistle.
I went to school in the 70's with a classmate who had very serious nystagmus. He had to almost lay his head on the desk beside his papers to be able to read them.
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I'm not bothered by moving icons or flashing things online.
I know about the hearing thing. I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30 nowadays, but my hearing is *still* better than that of the average adult or even younger person. My GF both has very good vision and very good hearing, but even hers can't begin to compare to mine.
I hear lightbulbs and fluorescent lights whistling and buzzing, I've sent numerous monitors back for high pitched whining noises (even though many reviews said they were silent), and other people's computers and laptops, which they describe as 'almost silent' sound like tornado's to me. Compared to most other people, I basically hear
everything.
Despite all of that, even I am noticing that my hearing has deteriorated in the last 20 years. Just imagine what I was capable of hearing as a kid, teenager and in my early twenties...
With regard to your classmate: nystagmus often goes hand in hand with short-sightedness, which I also have. Despite having glasses for computer use, I always read without glasses, because focusing on running text from a distance is just too hard. The bigger the distance between my eyes and the text, the harder it becomes to focus. The smaller the text and the closer the lines are, the harder it is to keep following the line.
So, reading speed is heavily affected by the used font, line spacing, font size, contrast between background and font, distance from eye to text, and sometimes, even how I'm feeling.