The Tambartun Oral Reading Test: A new test for determining reading performance of the visually impaired

Abstract

A new Norwegian oral reading test has been developed and tested on a group of visually impaired subjects and a group of normally sighted controls. Twenty-eight equivalent reading test charts, each consisting of 50 words, were made. The 50 words in each chart were randomly selected from the 300 two- to six-letter words most frequently used in the Norwegian language. All words in the test charts are unrelated, which means that the reader cannot base his or her reading on syntactic and semantic clues available in a meaningful text. The functional equivalence of the elements upon which the test is built makes it possible to compare reading facility under different physical conditions, e.g. under different light levels.The test is simple and quick to perform. This paper reports on the test's reliability and validity and its possible application in reading rehabilitation of the visually impaired.