Optelec, Sight Savers America, and Southern California College of Optometry to donate sophisticated low vision technology to help teen see things he never dreamed possible
LOS ANGELES (October 18, 2010) – Optelec U.S. Inc., in collaboration with Sight Savers America (SSA) and the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO), will kick-off the 2010 Los AngelesVisionWalk with a special low vision product donation to a Los Angeles teen living with a rare optic nerve disease. The product will allow the child to enjoy activities previously unavailable due to his vision impairment.
Optelec, a world leader in innovative and life changing assistive technologies for the blind and visually impaired, and Sight Savers America, a nationally expanding not-for-profit organization that provides complete vision care for economically disadvantaged children earlier this year, formed a rare partnership pairing a non-profit organization with a for profit company with similar goals. For the California event SCCO is coming on board to identify children who can benefit from the alliance’s services. The strength of this alliance allows all three organizations to fulfill the shared goal of helping children achieve the best vision services possible.
The alliance has identified a child living with the rare disease of Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH), who will receive the product donation of the Optelec Multiview CCTV, valued at $2,395. This young recipient has already been selected and will be announced and presented with the life-changing product at the Los Angeles VisionWalk event.
ONH is the underdevelopment of one or both optic nerves. The optic nerve, which is responsible for transmitting visual signals from the retina to the brain, has approximately 1.2 million nerve fibers in the average person. In those diagnosed with ONH, however, there are noticeably fewer nerve fibers.
“Our partnerships like this one with Optelec and SCCO are huge building blocks in the Sight Savers’ national expansion program now underway,” said Sight Savers America Founder and President/CEO Jeff Haddox. “Our hallmark at Sight Savers is to put high-tech vision aids into the homes of as many visually impaired children as possible based on recommendations from low vision specialists. When children with low vision have immediate access to this sophisticated technology they are motivated to become more independent, lead more normal lives, and to do things they would never have dreamed possible before.”
The strategic alliance, formed earlier this year between Optelec and Sight Savers America, further enhances the VisionZone initiative to better educate the public about the importance of ocular health and resources available. It helps to bridge the gap between eye disease, prevention, awareness and product solutions.
“We’re excited to unite the efforts of Sight Savers and the Southern California College of Optometry,” stated Andre Hardy, president of Optelec U.S. Inc and VisionZone. “VisionZone is a fast-spreading movement. We’re here to make a difference by uniting key industry partners and creating a centralized social networking community. At Optelec we’ve been involved with SCCO for years. It means a great deal that they too are in support of our new alliance with Sight Savers America and have come forward in helping us identify a much deserving child who can benefit from our technology. VisionZone is a fast-spreading movement and we’re here to make a difference.”
The Optelec MultiView product donation is set for Sunday, October 24 at the VisionZone LIVE exhibition, in conjunction with the Los Angeles VisionWalk, a signature fundraising event for the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), the largest non-governmental funder of research for retinal eye diseases in the world and another instrumental partner in the VisionZone initiative.
Representatives from each organization will be on-site in the VisionZone LIVE tent at the Los Angeles VisionWalk, held at UCLA’s Dickson Court South. The Optelec MultiView product donation and demonstration will be made to the child recipient at 10:15 a.m. with the Los Angeles VisionWalk registration starting at 9 a.m. and the walk beginning at 10 a.m. All activities are open to the public and community participation is encouraged.
Early detection of vision problems is a serious issue as more than 16 million Americans today report some form of visual impairment and that number is expected to double by 2030. The success rate of certain treatments for children can change from 90 percent before age six to an alarming 10 percent after age nine. It is estimated that nearly 25 percent of school-age children have vision problems and studies report that many preschool and school-age children are not receiving proper professional eye and vision care.
For more information, please visit www.VisionZone.org, www.Optelec.com, www.SCCO.edu and www.sightsaversamerica.org.
“Connect. Learn. Live. Solutions for Ocular Health.” VisionZone is the low vision community’s first live and virtual eye-health resource designed to bridge the gap between eye disease, prevention, awareness and product solutions. VisionZone LIVE and VisionZone.org connect the eye care, visually impaired and caretaker communities through a blended interactive experience and major corporate and non-profit partners, including Optelec U.S. Inc., which is spearheading the movement. For more information, visit www.VisionZone.org.
About Optelec U.S. Inc.
Optelec U.S. Inc. was founded in 1985 and is recognized as the worldwide market leader in providing innovative solutions for the blind, visually impaired and learning disabled. In January 2007, Tieman U.S., Holding Company to Optelec US Inc., spun off ShopLowVision.com as a subsidiary company to provide a one-stop-shop for optical, non-optical and daily living aids for eye care professionals and consumers. In 2010, VisionZone was created as a national awareness campaign for ocular health. For more information, visit www.Optelec.com and follow @Optelec on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Sight Savers America is a non-profit organization spreading the gift of sight to disadvantaged children, currently throughout Alabama and Mississippi and expanding nationally. In coordination with a network of volunteer eye care professionals, Sight Savers America is able to purchase necessary treatments from eye glasses to surgery to advanced vision aids at no cost to eligible families. Sight Savers also provides technologically advanced sight-enhancing devices for children with low vision and for those who are blind. The Sight Savers personal case management eye care service has become the benchmark for the industry. For more information, visit www.sightsaversamerica.org.
Established in 1904, SCCO is a private, non-profit, educational institution dedicated to educating today's minds to provide tomorrow's eye, vision and health care. SCCO grants a four-year, professional degree, Doctor of Optometry (OD) and a Master of Science in Vision Science (MS). The College's superior clinical education program provides patient care experiences in community optometric clinics; exposure to the delivery of optometric care in multi-disciplinary settings; and experiences in practices serving a wide variety of ethnic and socio-economic patient groups. SCCO owns and operates two premier eye and vision care centers – the Eye Care Center located on its campus in Fullerton, CA, and the Optometric Center of Los Angeles located in south-central LA.