BACKGROUND: A new Arabic visual acuity chart has been designed using the various recommendations made by vision scientists for achieving a standardized acuity chart. Our goal was to design a standardized Arabic distance visual acuity chart. METHOD: The chart is based on the design principle devised by Bailey and Lovie. Twelve Arabic letters of nearly equal legibility values, which could be constructed on a 5 by 5 Snellen framework, were used. The LogMAR method of scaling visual acuity was used, hence the size of letters in the rows progresses in a uniform step of 0.1 logarithm unit. RESULT: The size of letters in the chart ranged from 58.2 to 4.6 mm, corresponding to visual acuity of 4/40 to 4/3 (6/60 to 6/4) (20/200 to 20/15). The chart is designed for use at 4 m; acuity values for a 6-m testing distance are, however, provided on the chart. CONCLUSION: The chart will be useful for examining Arabic speaking patients.
BACKGROUND: A new Arabic visual acuity chart has been designed using the various recommendations made by vision scientists for achieving a standardized acuity chart. Our goal was to design a standardized Arabic distance visual acuity chart. METHOD: The chart is based on the design principle devised by Bailey and Lovie. Twelve Arabic letters of nearly equal legibility values, which could be constructed on a 5 by 5 Snellen framework, were used. The LogMAR method of scaling visual acuity was used, hence the size of letters in the rows progresses in a uniform step of 0.1 logarithm unit. RESULT: The size of letters in the chart ranged from 58.2 to 4.6 mm, corresponding to visual acuity of 4/40 to 4/3 (6/60 to 6/4) (20/200 to 20/15). The chart is designed for use at 4 m; acuity values for a 6-m testing distance are, however, provided on the chart. CONCLUSION: The chart will be useful for examining Arabic speaking patients.