In some cases, it takes us multiple assessment sessions and team meetings to make the perfect product recommendation. It is handy having a multidisciplinary team with a wealth of experience to draw from when dealing with clients with complex needs.
We recently assessed a client with MND and visual difficulties. She had multi-focal glasses with very thick lenses, which made it difficult for us to obtain a successful calibration with either of our eye tracking systems.
We recommended an optometrist appointment and the client returned a week later with single focal lenses that were still rather thick, but this time the client did not struggle with calibration - in fact, results were excellent.
However, the client still struggled with accuracy even after changes were made to her dwell settings, which can speed up or slow down her selection of a button. Various attempts at redesigning her interfaces also didn’t lead to sufficient accuracy for her, so a third appointment was booked and our team conducted a brainstorming session to address her challenges.
It was decided that the eye tracking settings be set to ‘Show contracting iris during dwell with magnifying cell’. This is a setting which provides visual feedback which helps the client to focus on the target cell, while also magnifying the cell they should look at.
In addition, the ‘Super Smooth’ option in Grid 3’s camera’s settings was set to Maximum. This means that any small involuntary movements of her eyes would be filtered out – making her eye movements seems less ‘wobbly’ to the tracking camera. We also set ‘Prevent repeat activations’ to 3 seconds, so that she would be less likely to accidentally hit a target twice, if she looked at it again within 3 seconds.
These adjustments made a huge difference to her eye movement - it was smooth and she managed to spell her name and surname and attempted to type 'Thanks'. In previous attempts she had been unable to even type a short word like cat. This client also required an adjusted keyboard layout which grouped the letters into larger buttons, making them easier for her to target.
Before deciding that a system is unsuitable for a client it is really important to make sure that all settings, accommodations and adjustments have been explored, and different page lay outs tried if necessary too. A team approach helps to solve challenges and ensures that the client gets the very best support and every opportunity for success!
