Low Vision and Performance of Work-Related Manual Tasks Requiring Dexterity

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Adults with visual impairments (VIs) are underrepresented in the labor force and experience unemployment and underemployment. Productivity losses associated with VIs are significant. VIs have also been associated with an increased risk of occupational injuries, particularly among older workers. With the aging of the labor force and the most often reported causes of irreversible vision loss being age-related, VIs in the workplace are a serious, costly and growing burden jeopardizing the safety, well-being, diversity and productivity of the labor force. A barrier to the employment of individuals with VIs is the lack of knowledge related to their abilities and potential skillsets if provided with the right support and how these match the job requirements. The long-term goal of our proposed line of work is to develop models that can be used as a tool to informed hiring, improved safety, productivity, job satisfaction and workforce diversity based on the individual factors of a potential worker. The focus of the proposed project is the performance of jobs requiring varying levels of visuomotor function and dexterity in older workers with reduced visual function capacities (best-corrected visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual field and depth perception). Adults of potential working age (55-70 years old) and diagnosed with low vision conditions (mild/moderate/advanced stages of age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy) will be recruited for participation along with controls with similar age, gender and education level characteristics. Participants will be asked to perform a wide range of work-related manual tasks requiring various levels of dexterity under 6 lighting conditions. Three specific aims will be pursued. In Aim 1, we will determine how visual function capacities in single and multiple domains impact performance on work-related manual tasks. Aim 2 is focused on how lighting modify the findings in Aim 1. In Aim 3, we will explore how visual function capacities and lighting alter work postures when doing work-related manual tasks in individuals with low vision. Appropriately constructed mixed linear statistical models will be used to test the hypotheses associated within each aim. The findings of the proposed project can be used to (1) better match job requirements and individual factors (e.g., visual function capacities), (2) better predict and thus reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders by considering aging-related visual function capacities, and (3) design accommodations and interventions for an aging labor force, thus maintaining or increasing its productivity, well-being and safety.