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  • Tablet computers versus optical aids to support education and learning in children and young people with low vision: protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial, CREATE (Children Reading with Electronic Assistance To Educate)

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Ophthalmology
Protocol
Tablet computers versus optical aids to support education and learning in children and young people with low vision: protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial, CREATE (Children Reading with Electronic Assistance To Educate)
  1. Michael D Crossland1,
  2. Rachel Thomas2,
  3. Hilary Unwin3,
  4. Seelam Bharani4,
  5. Vijaya K Gothwal4,
  6. Ana Quartilho5,
  7. Catey Bunce6,
  8. Annegret Dahlmann-Noor5
  1. 1 Optometry, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK
  2. 2 Optometry, Moorfields Eye Hospital at Bedford Hospital, Bedford, UK
  3. 3 Sensory and Communication Support Team, The Child Development Centre, Kempston, Bedford, UK
  4. 4 Meera and L B Deshpande Centre for Sight Enhancement, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
  5. 5 NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK
  6. 6 Department of Primary Care & Public Health Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Annegret Dahlmann-Noor; annegret.dahlmann-noor{at}moorfields.nhs.uk

Abstract

Introduction Low vision and blindness adversely affect education and independence of children and young people. New ‘assistive’ technologies such as tablet computers can display text in enlarged font, read text out to the user, allow speech input and conversion into typed text, offer document and spreadsheet processing and give access to wide sources of information such as the internet. Research on these devices in low vision has been limited to case series.

Methods and analysis We will carry out a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess the feasibility of a full RCT of assistive technologies for children/young people with low vision. We will recruit 40 students age 10–18 years in India and the UK, whom we will randomise 1:1 into two parallel groups. The active intervention will be Apple iPads; the control arm will be the local standard low-vision aid care. Primary outcomes will be acceptance/usage, accessibility of the device and trial feasibility measures (time to recruit children, lost to follow-up). Exploratory outcomes will be validated measures of vision-related quality of life for children/young people as well as validated measures of reading and educational outcomes. In addition, we will carry out semistructured interviews with the participants and their teachers.

Ethics and dissemination NRES reference 15/NS/0068; dissemination is planned via healthcare and education sector conferences and publications, as well as via patient support organisations.

Trial registration number NCT02798848; IRAS ID 179658, UCL reference 15/0570.

  • Vision
  • Low vision
  • Assistive technology
  • Adolescent
  • Child

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-015939

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors MDC, HU, VKG, CB and AD-N designed the study and secured funding. MDC, RT, HU, SB and VKG conducted the study and acquired the data. AQ, CB, MDC and VKG analysed the data. The present manuscript was drafted by AD-N and critically reviewed and amended by all authors; the revision was equally reviewed by all authors.

    • Funding This study was funded by British Council for the Prevention of Blindness and by Apple Inc, and sponsored by University College London.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval National Research Ethics Committee North of Scotland/Grampian 15/NS/0068.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.