The interviews with persons being interested in participating in the project have been arranged to get an overview on their vision loss and their ability and interests in computer and internet. 

1. Number of interviews, age and gender of participants

There have been 54 interviews in total, with 28 female and 26 male
persons from all partner countries, e. g. France, Germany, Ireland,
Netherlands and United Kingdom.  The majority of participants are 55-60
years old but there have also been some persons up to over 80 years old:

55-60 years old: 39%
60-70 years old: 24%
70-80 years old: 28%
80+    years old: 9%

 2. Current vision, eye diseases, individual conditions for reading and devices

Most participants have individual sight loss resulting mainly in poor close vision and poor far vision. Few participants have poor central, poor peripheral or foggy vision. They usually need special conditions for reading, like magnification or advanced light.

The most common eye disease for this group of people is age related macular degeneration followed by glaucoma. Only few people said they suffer from cataract or diabetic retinopathy or dry eyes.

People usually wear glasses and use loupes, magnifiers, magnification lenses or binoculars and monoculars if necessary in daily life. Few people use large font, large format screen, magnification software (Zoomtext) or screenreader (JAWS) for working with the computer.

3. Computer experience and skills

Half the participants say they are intermediate in handling the computer, and beginners or advanced users are to a smaller extent among them.

Word processing is the most frequently used application followed by spread sheet, multimedia and gaming.

4. Internet experience and skills

Most participants say they are intermediate in handling the internet, followed by beginners and advanced users.

More than half the participants use the internet every day, followed by several days a week and less.

Favored websites are:

Google, Wikipedia, BBC, radio stations, newspapers, online shops (Amazon, Tesco, Argos), banks, mobility (Deutsche Bahn, transport direct), health, hotel booking

The most common purpose participants use the internet for is to send emails and to get information. They also like shopping/booking and banking via internet but use this to a lesser extent. Some of the interviewed participants are involved with social networks and learning via internet. There is potential interest in every mentioned internet activity, reflecting all together an open mindedness to those activities.