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Check If You Need Glasses With This Online Vision Chart

Sitting in front of a screen all day strains our eyes. Often it will lead to minor problems like red rimmed eyelids, irritated eyes, itching, or just bags large enough to hold all the groceries you bought for the week. It’s a sign that you need to step away from the screen for a change or revise you work set-up to ensure its ergonomically correct. That said, since we sit quite close to our screen, the question of whether our eye-sight has grown weak or not is hard to answer, after all, everything looks pretty sharp from where we’re sitting. Vision is a simple little online app that lets you do a self-check and see if your vision has grown weaker. The app checks exclusively for nearsightedness (myopia) using a standard vision chart that you would find at the ophthalmologist’s office. It does not check for farsightedness (hyperopia). The app requires an internet connection and a standard web browser. If you’re conducting the test by yourself, you will need a smartphone with a QR scanning app installed on it to remotely enter your answers and move to the next one. If you aren’t testing by yourself and have a friend to help you out, you don’t need a smartphone at all.

Visit Vision and click the ‘Start here’ button at the top. You have to first calibrate your screen which is simple enough. You need a credit card or a similar sized card to do so; position the card on your screen so that it sits inside the rectangle and decrease the dimensions of the rectangle until it just fits around the card. Close the calibration screen when you’re done.

Vision - calibrate screen

Next, scan the bar code and you’re ready to begin. You’ll see the following chart which will automatically scroll to the next letter, and highlight the letter you’re supposed to be reading. Stand four meters away from the screen to begin the test.

Vision eyechart

On your phone, each letter is marked by a greyed star. Tap a star and a new panel slides open and lets you pick from different letters which letter you see. Once it’s entered, the star will turn green if you correctly identified the letter, and red if you didn’t. The results are reflected on both your phone and the web page.

vision_phone vision_answer

The app is not a substitute for finding out how weak your eyes are, just whether they are weak or not. If you already wear glasses, the app can tell you if your current prescription is right or you might need a stronger one. In some cases it might not be much use such as if you’ve got a very high number already. The app can tell you if you need to visit the doctor or not.

Visit Vision 

5 Comments

    • for what it’s worth, I couldn’t get past the fourth line with my glasses. You did pretty well.

    • 45 is pretty high. I’m guessing you missed the last few lines with the tiniest text. That means your eyes are pretty great. If you’re worried about not being able to read those last few lines, go ahead and visit a doctor