The MNREAD reading acuity Chart is an eye chart for measuring visual aspects of reading. It has particular application for people with impaired vision (low vision) who frequently experience problems with reading. It is used in low-vision rehabilitation, in research including clinical trials, and in prescribing magnifiers and near-vision optical corrections.
The MNREAD Reading Acuity Chart was developed in Gordon Legge’s lab at the University of Minnesota. At the time, Steve Mansfield was a postdoctoral researcher in Gordon’s lab. Steve is now a professor at the State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh. Gordon and Steve have continued to collaborate on development of MNREAD, and have worked with colleagues from other countries in developing versions of MNREAD in several languages.
MNREAD was developed with NIH support during the early 1990s. It has a University of Minnesota copyright from 1993. The English and Spanish versions of MNREAD are manufactured and marketed by Precision Vision (La Salle, IL) through a licensing agreement with the University of Minnesota. Since March 2017, the MNREAD® test has been available as an iPad app. Currently, the app version offers tests in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish.
Recent developments of MNREAD have benefited from advice and collaboration with several colleagues including Charles (Chuck) Bigelow (Rochester, NY), Aurélie Calabrèse (Marseilles), Michael Crossland (London) and Long To (Boston).
Several extensions of MNREAD are currently under development including tests in additional languages. We plan to use this blog for occasional posts regarding these developments and other topics relevant to MNREAD.
Recently published journal articles pertaining to MNREAD include:
Mansfield, J.S., Atilgan, A., Lewis, A. & Legge, G.E. (2019). Extending the MNREAD sentence corpus: Computer-generated sentences for measuring visual performance in reading. Vision Research 158, 11-18.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042698919300227
Calabrèse, A., To, L., He, Y., Berkholtz, E., Rafian, P. & Legge, G.E. (2018). Comparing performance on the MNREAD iPad app with the MNREAD acuity chart. Journal of Vision, 18(1):8. doi:10.1167/18.1.8
http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2670382
Calabrèse, A., Cheong, A.M.Y., Cheung, S.-H., He, Y., Kwon, M. Mansfield, J.S., Subramanian, A., Yu, D. & Legge, G.E. (2016). Baseline MNREAD measures of normally sighted subjects from childhood to old age. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 57, 3836-3843. doi:10.1167/iovs.16-19580.
http://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2537421
Calabrèse, A., Owsley, C., McGwin, G. & Legge, G.E. (2016). Development of a reading accessibility index using the MNREAD acuity chart. JAMA Ophthalmology, 134(4), 398-405. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2015.6097.
http://archopht.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2487490
