This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Pres. Carter encourages optometrists to support infant vision program
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ATLANTA – SECO International 2004 hosted former Pres. Jimmy Carter as keynote speaker in support of InfantSee, a national, charitable program developed to raise public awareness of the importance and significance of infant eye care.
Pres. Carter addressed optometrists in a full auditorium at the Georgia World Congress Center, urging them to support InfantSee by volunteering to provide free eye exams to infants in their first year. “My hope is that every optometrist in the Southeast and every optometrist in America will take it upon themselves as a personal responsibility,” Pres. Carter said, encouraging optometrists to volunteer for the program.
Sponsored by the American Optometric Association and Vision Service Plan, InfantSee began recruiting volunteer optometrists at SECO. Pres. and Rosalyn Carter, who became strong advocates for early vision testing in children when two of their 11 grandchildren entered elementary school with undetected amblyopia, are spokespersons for the program.
"Only 30% [of U.S. children] under the age of 6 years have an eye exam, and, of those, only one-third have an eye exam from an eye care professional. If you multiply one-third by 30% you get 10%. So what has been happening to the other 90%?” Pres. Carter questioned the audience. “They go to elementary school and into the first grade without an eye exam, an examination of their most precious physical possession -- their eyes -- from a specialist like you."
If optometrists make a commitment to InfantSee on a national basis, they will be the first professional group in the history of our country that has made such a generous, much-needed, far-reaching and transforming commitment to the future of America, Pres. Carter told the crowd.
For more information on eye care for children, visit www.aoa.org and www.vsp.com.