ACCESSIBLE VISION CARE FOR ALL

HEALTH CARE In many parts of the world, access to glasses, let alone an optometrist, is severely limited

- Tina Knezevic

This is something that Kevin White, a now-retired marine, noticed in 2005 while observing a humanitarian mission in Morocco. The US Air Force had set up an optometry clinic, which included giving away donated eyeglasses. White watched as one woman was prescribed a pair, only to decline to wear them based on the style.

“I thought, there needs to be a better way for us to get people wearing glasses,” he says. But at that time, there were no programmes that embraced the idea that glasses were both a medical necessity and a fashion accessory. A style that the user likes makes it more probable that they will wear them.

So White launched Global Vision 2020, collaborating with experts at Johns Hopkins University and the New England College of Optometry to create the USee Vision Kit, an easy-to-use diagnostic kit.