I recently had a vision assessment done. I had to do a lot of tracking exercises which really pushed me. I have no problem with things being blurry vs clear. It is mainly being able to track things with my eyes the way I want to without them tiring out very quickly. I want to be able to read a book on my own without my eyes burning after only reading a few sentences. I can read, just not for a long time and not without help knowing where I am at on the page. Reading is my favorite thing to do and it frustrates me that it is not something I can do alone in my room without help. I will keep pushing myself to meet this goal because it’s very important to me. The testing confirmed what I already knew. My eyes are all over the place. If I look too far in one direction, my eyes shoot the other way. It drives me crazy. It makes screen use exceptionally hard. I fatigue after just a few hours and it makes me not want to use technology. People don’t always think about the implications of vision. This is especially true if the person doesn’t need glasses. I believe all people who have AAC devices should have a vision test done by an OT because we need our vision more than speaking people to communicate adequately.
Mitchell's Life with Autism 
Thank you, Mitchell, for sharing this. We have a lot of vision issues and they make it very hard to use a letter board or an AAC device. Please know that your comments help us as a bridge between the ones who are doing our best to troubleshoot and the ones who don’t have a way to explain how they could be helped.
Thanks again.
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Hi Mitchell,
Your post about using your eyes and visual fatigue was super helpful. My eyes get tired and have a hard time coming together to focus on 1 point – and they often jerk away. Also sometimes the print gets wavy like its vibrating. My son John has always had a hard time reading – and it seems he is dyslexic…but I notice that he can’t always find where he was reading or keep track of what the words are that are next. Maybe he should have a vision evaluation too – did you have to do exercises?
Sher
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Thank you for this information. What is the device or app you type with? The keys are often small and this looks like it might’ve easier for my son I didn’t know he could read for a long time because he looks sideways
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It is a custom keyboard on TouchChat on an extra large Ipad.
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This is Mitchell’s mom: Some people have contacted me as to where we did this vision assessment. Here is the contact info for Dana Johnson. https://interplaytherapycenter.com/contact-us/
Also, here is something Dana Johnson wrote on ocular-motor, which is well worth reading: https://i-asc.org/reading-and-ocular-motor-skills/?fbclid=IwAR0q9nBaijBhPArgoE_BCpQW0d6qZvSz_b0SHkX-zdf_Mry550x3BEKi7Cg
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