Your vision definitely limits your visual reading speed if you have low vision, even with magnification.

Lighting, colors, the font used (not just the size), your screen, etc are all factors that may influence your speed. Black text on white background, for example, might be harder (thus slower) for you to read than black text on light grey or yellow text on blue. A different font choice might be legible at a smaller level, or just faster to recognize. If you haven't, playing around with these settings on your computer might help.

If you use zoomtext or another magnifier, screen size and the level of magnification you need are huge factors in your speed. The bigger the screen, the larger text you can fit in one screenful of information. Some people also read faster with printed materials or e-ink devices than they do computer screens, too

When you are visually impaired, reading speeds can vary even in an optimal setup due to factors like eye strain, how tired you are, the type of material you are reading, and so on.

That said, if 169 words per minute is the limit you can comfortably read at visually, are you using text to speech to read?

With practice (if you have normal hearing) it would be reasonable to expect that you could listen at rates substantially faster than you read visually. If you're not familiar with TTS (or even with a new voice) it will sound like gibberish at high speeds for a while, start with a speed that's comfortably intelligible and work your way up over time. TTS can also be less fatiguing to read, which might make you read more (and more easily) than you do visually. I would guess that most blind people can go over at least 250 words per minute with practice, although some read a great deal faster than this.

Talented braille readers can also reach speeds of 200-300 words per minute, if that's something you're interested in as well. It won't rival TTS speeds for most, but can be useful in some circumstances.


My reading speed decreased as I lost vision, so for me it wasn't a matter of practice or just not being skilled at it. But I can listen to TTS very fast using a good voice I'm familiar with, so not being able to sight read much or quickly isn't a big deal for me anymore.