Welcome to Ujima Lab.

My research work is reading performance, especially Digital Reading, and educational special need on the people with visual impairment(Low-vision). Now, I am developing software to learn the character "KANJI".

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Kazuhito UJIMA Ph. D.

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What's new

e-RAM(update : 2019/05/03)

e-RAM / The electronic reasonable accommodation and modification, called e-RAM, for students with disabilities. The Switch Control.
e-RAM / The electronic reasonable accommodation and modification, called e-RAM, for students with disabilities. The Split View.
e-RAM / How to see microscope eyepiece on iPad

Edition 33 - Associate Professor Kazuhito Ujima at HU home page

Research work

Teaching materials for the people with low-vison

We think the good use of PC to be effective for the learning of the Visual Impairment Persons (VIP).　We can use a tablet PC as a video magnifier, telescope, records, color aids, text recognition tools.　By a real class, we utilize a PC for the education of people.　I showed a video below. It is the workshop which we really perform.

e-Learning system for the people with visual impairment

Effects of presentation style on reading rate in digital reading: The influence of simulation of visual field loss: Kazuhito Ujima; Purpose: In this paper, digital reading is defined as reading a document on a computer screen. The methods of digital reading comprise of zoom (ZM) form, reflow (RF) form, linear (LN) form, and Sectional Presentation (SP) form. ZM form expands the length and breadth of materials; RF form expands the breadth; LN form displays the materials on one line; SP form displays five characters. This study compared visual field loss simulation and non-simulation to identify effects of character size and display form on the reading rate. The size of characters was set to the values of 0.7°, 1.1°, 1.7° and 2.6°. Method: This experiment was conducted by changing the factors of the display form, character size and the factorial design of the two factors for 14 healthy university students. The experiment was conducted using an indication form and the factor plan method of two factors of size. Reading rate was the dependent variable.
Result: Regarding the interaction effects, there were significant differences between simulation and non-simulation conditions. In small character size, SP reading rate was slower than ZM, RF and LN without simulation, but, no reading rates had significant differences with simulation. In large character size, ZM and SP reading rates were slower than RF and LN without simulation, but ZM reading rate was slower than RF, LN and SP with simulation. Conclusion: This study showed that when choosing a display form for digital reading for people with visual field loss, it is necessary to select RF, LN, and SP magnification methods.
Keywords: reading rate, digital reading, visual field loss, simulation
Reading rate in digital reading: Effect of display style and character size: Kazuhito Ujima; This study aimed to investigate the effect of character size and display style on reading rate when reading a sentence displayed on a computer screen (digital reading). The participants in this study were 21 university students with normal vision. Character sizes varied with heights of 0.7°, 1.1°, 1.7°, and 2.6°. Display conditions included Zoom, Reflow, Linear, and EP (Elicited Visual Presentation). In the Zoom condition, the reading rate was found to be lower for character sizes of more than 1.7°. However, in the Reflow, Liner, and EP conditions, the reading rate was not affected by character size expansion.
Selecting a Print Size Suitable for Low Vision Readers - MNREAD and Related Research -: K.Ujima; The Japanese Journal of Special Education, Vol.48, No.4, pp323-331, Nov., 2010.; This paper discusses the trends in research concerning the appropriate print size for low vision (LV) readers. In determining the optimal print size, behavioral assessment models have come to replace the earlier functional assessment models. The MNREAD test proposed by Legge, Ross, and Luebker (1989) is used worldwide as the most reliable test among other similar behavioral assessment models,. Oda, Mansfield, and Legge (1998) translated it into Japanese and it has been used mainly for rehabilitation of the visually impaired in Japan. MNREAD provides useful data on critical print size (CPS) and other factors. This data has clarified the characteristic difficulties in reading according to various visual conditions and has provided the basis for effective support. The author suggested four further studies concerning Japanese behavioral assessment models; 1) Reading assessment of elementary school pupils, 2) Characteristics of kanji structure, 3) Interpretation of CPS, and 4) Use of MNREAD in areas other than LV.
Research concerning Visual Stress and Related Factors: K. Ujima, M. Hamano, Y. Soejima; The Journal of Japanese Society for Low-vision Research and Rehabilitation, Vol. 10, pp.86-90, 3.31.2011.; Purpose: To investigate in Japanese elementary school students and junior high school students the occurrence of stress during visual tasks, known as visual stress (VS), and the relationship between VS and activity of school. Methods: This study examined 1,331 students at city elementary school and junior high schools in Fukuoka Prefecture. The research tool was the Visual Stress Questionnaire (VSQ), which had been used in a previous study. VSQ results were compared to visual acuity, activity of school, and school grade. Results: Data from 954 subjects were analyzed. Higher VSQ scores correlated with worse visual acuity and higher school grade. The Students with high VSQ scores (high VS) tended to skip words with uncertain meaning. The junior high school students with high VS misread characters and graphs, and to trace characters with their fingers. Conclusions: As grade level increases, reading materials are printed in smaller type sizes and the volumes are larger, suggesting that the characteristics of reading materials affect the intensity of VS. Those who experienced high VS made more mistakes in reading, but they apparently also tried to avoid mistakes by actions such as tracing characters with their fingers.
Evaluation of the suitability of use of a magnifier using MNREAD-Jk – A case report.: K. Ujima; The Journal of Japanese Society for Low-vision Research and Rehabilitation, Vol. 10, pp.63-67, 3.31. 2011.; (Preliminary remarks) Report on evaluation of the suitability of use of a magnifier using MNREAD-Jk. (Example) The subjects were elementary school pupils. From August 2007, a magnifier was selected with the help of an ophthalmologist, and training started. The first test with MNREAD-Jk indicated the suitability of the magnification of the magnifier. The magnifier was used in the second test and in the third test, MNREAD-Jk was carried out with an arbitrary viewing distance. The first result was CPS = 0.9 logMAR, M size = 3.2, and the second was CPS = 0.78 logMAR. One-way analysis of variance with the conditions of the second test as the independent factor and maximum reading speed as the dependent factor showed the effects of the factor to be significant (F(1, 20) = 27.93, p < 0.01). The results were first test < second test. (Discussion) This example confirms that the magnifier was used appropriately when used for carrying out MNREAD-Jk tests.
Proceedings of the 46th annual meeting of Japanese Association of Special Education p.541: Title : The effect of range of Kanji word and the meaning of a sentence on Critical Print Size and Maximam Reading Speed; UJIMA, K.
The effect of latencies of reading on character size -use of the simulation of low-vision: UJIMA, K. & ODA, K.; Folia Ophthalmologica Japonica vol.58, no.5, Pp274-278, 2007.6(printing; (Purpose) The latencies were focused on factor that reading speed turned around critical print size (CPS).(Method)We measured latencies of reading in order to know the word recognition time. There are two factors that have factor of Low-vision simulation (two levels: simulated or no-simulated) and character size around CPS(five levels). Dependent variable was latencies.(Result)In results of ANOVA, Visual acuity didn’t have main effect significantly. Character size had main effect significantly. In result of LSD, latencies of reading were longer under CPS.(Conclusion)We showed that latencies of reading were longer under CPS, and this case was explained by prolonged viewing hypothesis. This result confirmed that longer time in phases of input the each word produced lower reading speed under CPS.; Keywords: latencies of reading, reading rate, low-vision
Determining the Size of Characters for Large-Scale Projected Presentations for People With Low Vision: A Method Using the Results of Reading Ecaluation Tests: UJIMA, K., SHIMADA. H. & ODA, K.; The Japanese Journal of Special Education, vol. 45, no. 1 Pp.1-12, May, 2007.; This paper concerns two experiments; one, which involved simulated low vision in people with normal vision and one, which involved people with actual low vision. The purpose of the experiments was to determine the usability of the critical size of characters in projected presentations at a distance. The first (simulated low vision) group was tested considering two factors; character sizes (3 levels) and reading styles (2 levels). The results from the first experimental group showed that reading speed was significantly faster in cases where print size was critical size (or larger) than it was in cases where print size was smaller than the critical size and that there was interrelation to the results of the reading evaluation tests, suggesting that the critical print size may be used as a standard in determination of character size for large scale projected presentations. Some results of the second experimental group showed great similarly to the first group, however there were cases when the results didn’t exactly match that of the first group. The results of these experiments suggest that although the critical print size may indeed serve as a good standard in determining the character size for people with low-vision, it is also important to consider first-hand opinions of such readers and make necessary adjustments.; Keywords: reading speed, critical print size, low vision
Development of an HTML textbook and viewer for low-vision and a it’s estimation: Kazuhito UJIMA and Takeshi MURATA; Transactions of Japanese Society for Information and Sytems in Education(in Japanese), Vol.17, No.3, pp415-424, 2000.; Most of the documents and textbooks usually used in school for low-vision are printed matters. The most preferable character size, font and other properties in a printed matter, individually depend on each low-vision. We herein attempt to propose new teaching materials for low-vision; Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) contents which work on personal computers. Each low-vision is able to make his/her own choice of size and fonts. To prove how effective the contents are, an examination for low-vision is carried out. It is found that students' reading speeds in HTML matters are as high as in normal printed matters. In addition, accessibility (search time) is faster in the HTML matters than in printed matters.

Class

Education for children with visual impairment
Practice of educational suport for children with visual impairment
Method of teaching children with visual impairment

Address

Graduate School of Education,
Department of Special Needs Education
1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima City, Hiroshima 739-8524 Japan
Tel / Fax　082-424-7175(Office)

Notice

Web master is Ujima Kazuhito (ujima[at]hiroshima-u.ac.jp)

Please replace from [at] to @, when you email me.