Description of Research Report: The Reading Behavior Inventory: An Outcome Assessment Tool
The authors thank Elena Thomas, Teri Oros, Pat Wagstaff, Berenice McDevitt, and Julie Hazan for their contributions in training the participants and collecting data.
Many questionnaires attempt to assess the quality of life of individuals who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision), but few apply to those who are undergoing visual rehabilitation and hence are difficult to adapt as an outcome measure (Massof & Rubin, 2001). For example, Stelmack, Stelmack, and Massof's (2002) study suggested that the majority of items on the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire were not amenable to testing the outcomes of vision rehabilitation, whereas Szlyk et al.'s (2004) analysis of the Veterans Affairs Low Vision Visual Functioning Questionnaire was specifically designed to test the outcomes of vision rehabilitation. Examples of other outcome measures include the Functional Independence Measure for Blind Adults (Long, Crews, & Mancil, 2000) and the Blind Rehabilitation Services Functional Outcomes Survey (De l'Aune, Welsh, & Williams, 2000). Most studies have targeted outcomes as a global concept, which leaves the need to evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions. Such evaluative tools would allow providers of services to examine the outcomes of specific rehabilitation interventions and may allow for the removal of potential confounding factors (that is, negative outcomes that were found because a component intervention lacked effectiveness) in global measures.