By Martin Hickman

LONDON (Reuters) - Twelve millions Britons could be eating food past its sell-by date or taking the wrong medicine because they can't read read small print, according to the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).


Saying Britain was suffering an "information famine," the RNIB said on Tuesday that new research showed one in five of the UK's 59 million citizens could not decipher vital information on labels and bottles.


To discover the extent of the problem, the RNIB carried out its largest ever in-depth research among people with sight problems as well as a national sample of the general public.


More than 1,000 people with sight problems varying from total blindness to inability to pass the driving sight test were interviewed by the Office for National Statistics. Pollsters Taylor Nelson Sofres surveyed a general sample of 2,000 adults.


Extrapolating the findings, the RNIB said 21 per cent of the adult population struggled to read instructions on bottles of medicine or letters from their doctor.


A quarter of the general population and 73 per cent of people with sight problems could be eating food past its usable date because they could not read food labels, the institute said.


While 14 per cent of the general public had difficulty reading captions on TV, one in 10 adults was thought to be unlikely to be able to read the number of an approaching bus in time to hail it.


BIG PROBLEM


"Small print is a big problem for significant numbers of people," said Ian Bruce, an RNIB director. "The dangers inherent in this information famine are clear.


"It is not only people with sight problems who face the potential danger and daily frustration of taking the wrong dose of medicine or eating food long past its sell-by date.


"A surprisingly large proportion of the general population, particularly older people, also struggle because they can't easily read small print."


Everyday household equipment was becoming more difficult to operate because of the growing use of "hard-to-read electronic displays," the RNIB said.


The institute, which represents Britain's two million people with sight problems, singled out the internet as a particular problem "because of the thoughtless ways websites are designed."


To improve readability, the RNIB recommended publishers use a plain typeface with a minimum type size of 14 point with the use of semi-bold and bold. It added that text should be well-spaced, but without italics or "clutter."


     Listing # 14 sep 2001