Web-based therapies help thousands of stroke survivors

Thousands of stroke survivors with visual problems could improve their sight from the comfort of their own home using two new web-based therapies. The online therapies, developed by UCL and funded by the Stroke Association, are designed to help stroke survivors with visual problems perform everyday tasks like reading the newspaper and identifying individual objects. One in five stroke survivors are left with partial or total loss of vision to one side following a stroke (known as hemianopia), which can severely affect their quality of life. The two websites, Read-Right and Eye-Search are the first web-based rehabilitation techniques to be introduced in the UK and could mark the beginning of a new online era for stroke rehabilitation. Patients with hemianopia find reading difficult as they are unable to see the full page. Some patients abandon reading altogether, and others are unable to return to their jobs as they cannot read quickly enough. The website Read-Right , which has been trialled by 194 stroke survivors to date, helps them improve their reading by encouraging them to read text as it scrolls across a screen.