Large Print Books

Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (2000). Using objective data sources to enhance teacher judgments about test accommodations. Exceptional Children, 67(1), 67.

This quantitative research study compared the overall test performance of students with and without learning disabilities under standard conditions and with each of three accommodations: extended time, large print, and read aloud. Large print test accommodations significantly improved the overall test performance for students with and without learning disabilities.

Hughes, L. E., & Wilkins, A. J. (2000). Typography in children's reading schemes may be suboptimal: Evidence from measures of reading rate. Journal of Research in Reading, 23(3), 314.

This study investigated the effect of text size and spacing on the reading speed and accuracy of children age five to eleven. Reading accuracy was significantly higher with large versus small text size. There was a similar direct relationship between reading speed and text size for children five to seven years old.

Hughes, L. E., & Wilkins, A. J. (2002). Reading at a distance: Implications for the design of text in children's big books. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 72(2), 213-226.

Visual acuity, typically measured by the ability to name letters at a distance, is poorer when letters are small and closely spaced. It has been suggested that reading can be affected by letter size and spacing. AIM: To determine the effect of text size and spacing on the ability to read at a distance, with a view to helping with the design of text in children's 'Big Books'. SAMPLE: The visual acuity of 200 children aged between 6 and 12 was measured. A subset of 66 children was given further reading tests. METHOD: From a viewing distance of 3m children were required (1) to identify words and (2) to read passages of text rapidly. A repeated measures design was used to compare the effects of different size and spacing of text on performance of the two tasks. RESULTS: Performance improved when the spacing of words and size of letters was greater than is typical in 'Big Books'. For a given letter density, increasing the spacing improved performance more than increasing the letter size. CONCLUSION: The text in children's books could be made easier to read by expanding the spacing between words and also by increasing the size of the print. The maximum viewing distance should be reduced from 15ft (4.6m) to 10ft (3.0m).

Koenig, A. J. (1992). The relative effectiveness of reading in large print and with low vision devices for students with low vision. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 86(1), 48-53.

This paper used a case study approach to explore the value of an objective procedure to evaluate the relative effectiveness of reading large print and reading regular print with low vision devices for 6 students (ages 8–16) with low vision. Data were collected on oral and silent reading rates, working distance, and oral reading miscues.

Koenig, A. J., & Ross, D. (1991). A procedure to evaluate the relative effectiveness of reading in large and regular print. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 85(5), 198-204.

A procedure was developed for gathering objective data on specific reading behaviors, to assist multidisciplinary teams in comparing the effectiveness of large and regular print for low-vision students. Case studies of six elementary-aged students with low vision found that the procedure was useful in making decisions concerning print size.

Sloan, L. L., & Habel, A. (1973). Reading speeds with textbooks in large and in standard print. Sight-Saving Review, 43(2), 107-111.

Students with visual impairments used optical devices to read standard or large print. Reading speed and comprehension were comparable in the two conditions.