Schoolhouse Review: Reading Rulers

Crossbow Education is a company that specializes in providing teaching aids for people with dyslexia and visual stress.  One of those aids is the Reading Ruler. Since Gess has vision problems that are not completely corrected with glasses I was eager to give them a try and see if they would help her too. 

The Eye Level Reading Rulers are a covered overlay text highlighter that helps you reduce page glare and blurring text to give you an easier, visually stress free reading experience.  Each ruler is about 6 inches in length and they come in various colors.  We were given a package of 10 that included one of each color for the purpose of our review.  That gave us the opportunity to actually see which color worked best for us. Reading Rulers come in the following colors: yellow, celery, grass, jade, aqua, sky, purple, magenta, pink and orange.

We seemed to find that the lighter colored ones worked best for us.  I say "us" because I have found that I enjoy them too.  While I don't have any visual problems (that aren't already addressed with corrective lenses) I noticed that I avoid reading books with smaller to average print.  By using a light colored ruler such as yellow, orange or pink I find that that size of the font is no longer an issue.  The rulers really make the text stand out and bring it into focus. 

Gess used it for two different purposes.  One was when the font was small.  When I would try to get Gess to read books with small font she would say "I can't, it's too hard."  That made me think she just couldn't see it, however I found out by using the ruler it wasn't the font itself that was the issue.  Using the Reading Ruler Gess was able to read the size of the font without any background blurring, glare, or losing her place.  Here she is reading a Bible that she never used to use because the font was "too small."

She also used it reading books that had decent font size but a lot of text.  It simply helped her keep her place and her focus.  See how nicely the Reading Ruler highlights the passage?

She sometimes has trouble making the ruler lay on the page since it is longer than necessary but then again its length also allows it to double as a book mark making it readily available when you need it next.  I can see why they sell them in packs of 5 or more.  If you are like me you have more than one book going so it sure is handy to have enough Reading Rulers around.

I imagine different vision problems will make different colors work more effectively so you may want to start off with a pack that offers a variety of colors.  Crossbow does make sampling colors easy for you.  You can purchase the Eye Level Reading Rulers in packs of 5 or 10.  The 5 packs includes 5 of one color or you can choose one of each of the most popular colors.  Those sell for $9.45.  The 10 pack offers a similar choice, one of each color or 10 of one color and that sells for $16.95.  They also have Plain Window Reading Rulers available.  To learn more about the Reading Ruler by Crossbow visit their website or see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought about them by clicking on the banner below.

Disclaimer: As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew I received a pack of 10 Eye Level Reading Rulers for giving my honest opinion and assessment of this product in my review.

Note: All pricing is current at the time of posting and is subject to change.