The Missing Link in Learning to Read!?
Nigel Dupree
Project Director at S.M.A.R.T. Foundation - also known as: Legin Nyleve, LeginNyleve and @l3gin on other Social Media
It's just a shame that in desperation they are not enabling kids to read fluently but teaching a methodology or strategy to gain audio feedback recognition of a spoken word rather than visual predictive sight recognition and recall following nightly story telling and bedtime story books with large print and pictures to make the connections, so called cueing.
Of course initially breaking down words helps with sounding out or pronunciation of longer words when the child hasn't developed a wide enough field of vision or is unable sustain focus, stable convergence and accommodation, on a single word and/or has issues with spatial awareness and left-right direction also manifested in poor or very poor hand-eye coordination let alone contrast sensitivity debilitating edge detection when presented with small stripey text against a bright-white background.
It's a misnomer to call Phonics the "Science of Reading" as it is just a strategy or tokenistic prosthetic aid for teachers rather than truly enabling "Accessibility" to the written-word.
The "Science of Reading" is actually all about the "Plasticity" of children's brains to learn new skills and even repurpose inherent skills like 'facial recognition' co-opting spatial awareness and close-up 3D vision to make rapid sequential, serial, fixation and saccades for performing this new far from natural modern day task of reading.
Some of us are also born with left-right asymmetry issues requiring us to overcome natural visual disabilities adding neurological stressors to our journey to reading fluently.
However, the rehabilitation process was kicked-off last century with Meares Irlen research noting that for a significant number of children lacking stable 3D Vision, coining the phrase "Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome" they would present reporting visual distortions, eyestrain and headaches in brightly lit environments or when reading text printed with strong contrasts such as black print on a white background otherwise simply known as "Contrast Sensitivity" or even Photophobia.
There have been some advances in recognising this in the introduction of basic minimal 4.5:1 ratio "Colour Contrast Validation" of every Website for Accessibility but, as yet, a generic maximum "Colour Contrast Calibration" of websites or display screen devices is not covered by legislation other than the UK 2010 Equality Act and maybe US 1990 ADA entitling users to make personal custom "Reasonable Adjustments or Accommodations" for Accessibility, efficiency and ergonomically comfortable ease of use and/or operation of DSE equipment "effectively preventing and/or mitigating" the predictable risk of debilitating / disabling "repetitive stress injuries".
These visual repetitive stress injuries were identified by the UK Health and Safety Executive in their commission and published Meta Study of DSE users occupational health in 2007.
The WHO International Classification of Diseases recognised the Global implications if, not addressed then, predictably half the Global Population are likely to present as monocular with only one or other eye functional leaving those affected with only 2D vision and risk of early onset blindness in a 3D world.
Anyway, following introduction of 2018 International WCAG 2.1 and UK Government Accessibility Regulations for Government Employees the "Colour Contrast" of learning material whether in hard copy or distributed via the IOT, e-learning presentations, has triggered the production of a minimal "Colour Contrast Matrix" for ease of use by lecturers in Universities and teachers in other educational institutions.
In the UK it seams progress toward adopting Accessibility Strategies is far from reaching maturity in Primary and Secondary Schools and so far the ONS only monitors other Syndromic Syndromes linked to recent COVID pandemic excluding the epidemic in myopic and asthenopic disease.
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In the meantime, it appears "binocular vision and/or contrast sensitivity" are also excluded from standard refractive pre or school age eye exams leaving a critical disability undiagnosed other than by chance when the child presents with an obvious strabismus or commonly "lazy-eye" or physical eye-turn suppressing blurred or worse disabling double vision.
Clearly this has been recognised as a natural adaptation for binocular vision stress as the brain and visual system seeks to cope, tolerate and eventually, reaching the point of "adaptation exhaustion", resorts to suppressing vision in one or other eye or even both.
Of course, many turn to traditional Vision Therapy through "eye-exercises" in an attempt to rehabilitate the now habitual visual systems suppression of uncomfortable even painful vision loss resulting in the suppression of binocular vision.
Unfortunately, eye-patching, pencil push-up's or more recent practice Brock-String VT exercises are only effective if the longer latency of maintaining regular exercise is maintained so some turn to cosmetic surgery for a quick fix although this does not restore 3D Vision.
Binocular Vision as a debilitating "Disability"
Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 21st Digital Century with Display Screens increasingly adaptable a methodology to "objectively" versus subjectively select optimal RGB "Colour Contrast" value setting has demonstrably effective in enabling the functionally and digitally illiterate to gain improved access to text on-screen and, within a few weeks match their reading rate and comprehension gains on hard copy.
Minimal generic "Colour Contrast Validation for Websites"
Custom "Colour Contrast Calibration" for Display Screens