“People who have eye diseases that damage their central vision can regain the ability to read quickly and comfortably by using digital tablets, according to a recent study. The research found that people with moderate vision loss could increase their reading speed by 15 words-per-minute, on average. Using a tablet with a back-lit screen resulted in the fastest reading speeds for all study participants, no matter what their level of visual acuity,” Science Daily reports.

“In the study, which was conducted at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, researchers found that all of the 100 participants gained at least 42 words-per-minute (WPM) when using the iPad tablet on the 18-point font setting, compared with reading a print book or newspaper,” Science Daily reports. “A more modest gain of 12 WPM, on average, was achieved by all subjects when using the Kindle tablet set to 18-point font.”

MacDailyNews Take: Based on their tablet of choice, the subjects obviously self-selected into two groups characterized by significantly dissimilar levels of mental acuity.

Science Daily reports, “Patients with the poorest vision − defined as 20/40 or worse in both eyes− showed the most improvement in speed when using an iPad or Kindle, compared with print… The researchers believe the iPad’s back-illuminated screen is the key to the significantly improved reading speed achieved by patients with moderate vision loss.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Todd S." for the heads up.]