LONDON, 1 August, 2008: For too many of the worlds poorest people, life is just a blur (henligger i et slør).
WHO estimates that roughly a billion people – mostly in developing countries – need eyeglasses to read, write, work, and go about their daily lives. But they cannot find them, let alone afford the high price tag.
It can take as much as three months wages or more to afford glasses in many African countries. And at least 10 per cent of this group is made up of youngsters of school age.
These vision problems could eventually be corrected on a large scale through use of cheap, self-correcting spectacles (briller), invented by Oxford University physicist Josh Silver, and being made by a British NGO for between 5–10 US dollar, with the ultimate target price being about one dollar (4,70 DKR) a pair.
Silver made his prototype glasses, called AdSpecs, in the mid-1990s after helping cosmetics giant Estee Lauder develop an inexpensive mirror with adjustable magnification.
While experimenting with his mirror prototypes, Silver found he could adjust the lens in the mirrors by varying the amount of silicone oil between two flexible membranes.
Seeing Clearly for the First Time
Fast forward to 2008, and at the invitation of the World Bank, Adaptive Eyecare Limited has been showcasing the new AdSpecs (Adaptive Spectacles) at the Bank as part of a global appeal to expand production to reach everyone with vision problems.
The groups CEO, Julian Lambert, believes the new AdSpecs, early versions of which would have made Harry Potter feel right at home, could not only restore opportunity and hope to peoples lives, but, on a broad enough scale, could help countries move more briskly toward their Millennium Development Goals in health and education, just to name two.
– Most people with terrible vision have never had an eye test, and so have just adapted to their blurry world and lost their ability to learn, to read and write, and to function, says Lambert, currently on leave from DFID (det britiske Danida) to run Adaptive Eyecare Ltd.
– But you should see their faces once they put their glasses on and see the world around for them clearly for the first time, explained he.
Filling a Gap in Eye Care
In Africa, with one optometrist for every one million people (compared to a ratio of 1:4.500 in the US), one of the breakthroughs with AdSpecs is that people can self-correct their vision.
Using two little vials (medicinflasker) of silicon oil on the swing arms of the glasses, people can pump the solution into the lenses to adjust their prescription while they look at an eye chart.
The lenses become more convex or concave, depending on whether the wearer is long-sighted or short-sighted. The power range of the lenses is +6 to –6 Diopters, and once the lenses are set, you take the vials off the arms of the glasses and store them for safe keeping.
Test Results in Ghana
To test the development potential of AdSpecs, the Word Bank bought 10.000 pairs to help Ghanaians in an adult reading program, and monitored the eventual impact.
One evaluation has shown that 70 per cent of the people who received the new glasses corrected their own vision at least as well, if not better, than a trained optometrist.
Amala Martin, a district coordinator for Ghanas Non-Formal Education Division, says he noticed an immediate impact when his adult students started wearing the new glasses.
– If I come to the class, and I can not see the chalkboard (tavlen), I will not come back again. Or if I am given a book to read and I can not see the letters, I just will not come back again. Those that had these problems, but have had their vision corrected by the AdSpecs, are now very regular and punctual—and their learning has improved, Martin said.
Martins supervisor, Agnes Ado Mensah in the Ghana Education ministry, counts herself as an enthusiast of the new glasses as well:
– The fishermen tell us they can now mend their nets, and when they go out in their boats they can catch more fish because now they can see, and this is really improving their economic lives, Mensah said.
A Majority Can Be Helped
Bank education specialist, Don Bundy, has worked with Lamberts NGO over the eight years to tailor the new glasses for children especially, AdSpecs, which can be used to improve the vision of over 90 percent of people requiring correction.
This will help to increase productivity, community involvement, improve literacy and mean greater creativity for the many, many children and adults struggling to live with untreated poor eyesight.
– The closer we get to 2015 and the due date for the MDGs (2015 Målene), interventions like this which are simple and low-cost, with high development impact, will become more and more indispensable to help the many youngsters who are lagging behind in their schooling – and the adults who can not find work – rise to their full potential, and in doing so, help their communities to flourish as well, Bundy said.
Adaptive Eyewear: Solving an Invisible Problem
– Self-correcting glasses allow wearers to correct vision on their own
– Target price tag is one US dollar a pair
– Widespread use of these glasses could speed progress on Millennium Development Goals in health and education
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
