The World Health Organization estimates that 670 million people¹ are currently living without glasses that they need. Their poor vision is costing the economy of the developing world up to $400bn per year².

In the UK there is an optometrist to serve every 8,400 people, but in parts of sub-Saharan Africa this ratio can be as poor as one optometrist for every 1,000,000 people³.

There are many reasons for a lack of suitable people who are able to prescribe glasses. Reduced access to training and no funding for eyecare professionals are the leading causes, as well as migration of skills to Europe and the United States.

Optometrists tend to be concentrated in large cities in the developing world, usually serving a private market, leaving rural areas and the urban poor completely unserved. Training of optometrists is often a slow and expensive process, with economic circumstances and the cost of their training often preventing them from helping those most in need at the end of their training period.

Scaling a ‘developed world model’ of vision correction to such challenging situations is extraordinarily difficult and slow, and will take at least another generation, potentially depriving millions of people of glasses that they need.

A new way of providing accessible, sustainable and simple vision correction services to the hundreds of millions of people who need glasses but cannot get them is sorely needed. Eyejusters are designed to help - self-adjustable glasses vastly lower the barrier to providing clear vision for hundreds of millions of people.

Easily-correctible refractive error has many more effects than simply poor vision - it can blight a person’s life and destroy opportunities. Poor vision can affect:

Much of the cost in currently providing refractive eyecare services is not in the cost of the glasses. Transportation costs, salaries of clinical professionals and the logistics of storing different lenses mount up. Loss of earnings for those who need to travel to an optometrist can be a burden that may outweigh the benefits for recipients.

Eyejusters lower the total cost of providing vision correction services, helping organisations concentrate on providing more complex eyecare services.

1. Holden BA, Arch Ophthalmol 2008; 126 & Resnikoff S, Bull World Health Organ 2008; 86: 63–70
2. 2005 international dollars, Smith TST, Frick KD, Holden BA, Fricke TR, Naidoo KS. Bull World Health Organ 2009; 87(6): 431-437
3. Carlson AS. Optometry in Ethiopia. S Afr Optom 2008; 67: 42–4
4. 95% figure from Holden BA, Fricke TR, Ho SM, et al., Arch Ophthalmol 2008; 126: 1731-9