Abstract

Reading is one of life’s great pleasures, as well as being essential to many daily tasks. Sadly, difficulty reading is also one of the first symptoms of Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), a rare form of dementia. Neuropsychologist Dr Aida Suárez-González has made it her mission to return this ability to people with PCA, in the process helping people with other neurological conditions too.

Aims

With my team at UCL, we set out to create an easy-to-use app called ReadClear, which would apply these techniques to adapt texts and make them easier to read. Thanks to funding from the Dunhill Medical Trust (DMT), I was able to work on the project for three years. We were also able to recruit a software developer to help us develop the app.

Throughout the project, co-production was very important – we developed the app together with people with PCA, directly using their input to inform and shape its development. After we had created the early prototype of ReadClear, we started visiting people with PCA in their homes to test it out.