An Arabic letter distance visual acuity test chart for young children and illiterate adults

This paper describes the design of a kinetic response Arabic letter distance visual acuity test chart for young children and illiterate adults. An Arabic letter ein which has previously been used in the design of Arabic alphabet VA charts was employed. Four different orientations of the letter were constructed on a 5 x 5 unit format and graded according to log MAR principle of acuity scaling using an Apple computer. Inter-letter space in each row was made equal to the width of each letter in the row, and inter-row space was made equal to the height of letters in the next lower row. The chart has 14 acuity rows ranging from 4/40 to 4/2 (6/60 to 6/3) (20/200 to 20/10) (log MAR 1.0 to -0.3) at 4 metres. To establish the validity of the chart, acuity values obtained using the chart were compared with those from an existing Arabic log MAR distance VA chart and the Bailey and Lovie distance VA chart. Test retest reliability of the chart was also examined statistically. Results show that VA values from the new chart were significantly similar with those from which it was compared, and that values from the chart are reliable. The chart will be useful for evaluating vision, especially for young children and illiterate adults.