For a child with blurred vision, eyeglasses are as academically essential as books, papers and pens. Children with undetected or uncorrected vision problems may be unfairly perceived as learning disabled, low achieving, or anti-social. Although refractive error (more commonly known as near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism) is one of the most common treatable health conditions of childhood, the treatment is simple and cost-effective: the provision of correctly prescribed eyeglasses.
ChildSight®, the domestic program of Helen Keller International (HKI), collaborates with local school districts and healthcare providers to "bring education into focus"™ for underserved schoolchildren. ChildSight® provides in-school vision screenings, prescription eyeglasses, and referrals for further ophthalmologic treatment, as needed, to low-income students, free of charge. The program screens children between ages 10-15, the age range when refractive error typically manifests. These children receive immediate access to highly trained professionals and receive correctly prescribed eyeglasses within one week. By correcting their visual deficiencies – on-site and free of charge – ChildSight® eliminates the barriers of prohibitive cost and limited access that prevent many underprivileged children from obtaining the care they need.
More than two million children in the U.S. suffer from uncorrected refractive error every year due to various social, economic and transportation barriers, as well as inconsistent or inadequate treatment under existing school health programs. Although this is not a life-threatening condition, it threatens a child’s quality of life, resulting in lost education and employment opportunities, lower productivity, emotional frustration, and social exclusion. Using a school-based intervention model, ChildSight® engages students, parents, teachers, district administrators, local healthcare providers and community stakeholders in order to address this vital health concern. ChildSight® is distinguished by its high clinical standards and its efforts to educate children and their families about the importance of corrected vision and the availability of related healthcare resources in their community.
ChildSight® shares its 14-year history of service with the Reader’s Digest Partners for Sight Foundation, which has supported the program since its beginning stages in New York City. Today, the program reaches underserved children throughout California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Texas. Since its inception in 1994, ChildSight® has screened well over one million children nationwide and has delivered more than 135,000 pairs of eyeglasses to children who needed them. In doing so, we have helped to connect these children to healthy eyesight and its many advantages: notably, the clear vision necessary to fulfill academic potential and to achieve a brighter future.
For more information about ChildSight® and Helen Keller International, please visit
http://www.hki.org/programs/childsight.html or
www.hki.org. To reach the offices of Helen Keller International in New York City, please call (212) 532-0544.
