Chris O’Shaughnessy lives on Long Island and works as a clinical specialist at Empire Visionworks, where he helps shape the patient experience by customers coordinate insurance claims and other duties prior to them meeting with the optometrist for an eye examination. Like yours truly, O’Shaughnessy has cerebral palsy yet is ambulatory. In a recent interview conducted by email, he said it made him “really sad” that people would talk to him but not friends of his in wheelchairs.
O’Shaughnessy is a graduate of Long Island’s Henry Viscardi School. On its website, the school describes itself as providing “access to quality education leads to personal growth and future success for students with severe physical disabilities [by blending] challenging academics, adapted learning environments and enriched programming to create an individualized learning experience that nurtures the needs and abilities of every student.” O’Shaughnessy is grateful for his time at Viscardi, telling me it taught him about empathy and compassion for others, an especially poignant lesson considering the way people treated him versus how his friends were treated. “Just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn’t mean they don’t want to be included in the conversation,” O’Shaughnessy said, referring to his friends in wheelchairs. “That experience made me extremely passionate about inclusion.”
It was at Viscardi, more than two decades ago, where O’Shaughnessy first learned he needed glasses from his math teacher. O’Shaughnessy was squinting a lot, a result of his trouble seeing the board; his teacher suggested he visit the local optometrist’s office for an eye exam. After going through the exam, O’Shaughnessy described his world as being changed “like magic,” telling me he put on his glasses and was instantly able to “see everything so clearly.” It was literally life-changing for him.
“Having clear vision plays a crucial role in a child’s success in the classroom. 80% of classroom learning is visual,” Dr. Stephanie Kirschbaum, optometrist at VSP Vision Network, said to me in a recent interview. “While we know clear vision is essential to help children succeed in school, sadly, 1 in 4 students are expected to start the school year with a vision impairment that requires treatment. A comprehensive eye exam for kids checks for undetected vision correction needs and other vision issues, such as eye tracking and eye muscle coordination.”
Dr. Kirschbaum explained people with physical disabilities (like O’Shaughnessy) getting needed, quality visual care has the potential to be “all the more challenging” due to the cost of care and treatment means financial feasibility takes priority over one’s health. Moreover, literally getting care by way of transport can also hinder access to proper healthcare. These factors are meaningful to Dr. Kirschbaum beyond her medical expertise, as she’s the mother of two disabled children who are neurodivergent. As such, she told me she and her family is “acutely aware” of the imperative to “customize and develop experiences that work for folks of all abilities.” Eye care, she said, is no different; it’s extremely important doe doctors to foster what Dr. Kirschbaum described as “adaptive, inclusive, and comprehensive care.”
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“With my own family, medical visits can often come with new challenges for my kids and their needs,” she said. “As an optometrist, I want to make sure I can provide an experience that will make my patients feel comfortable and cared for.”
O’Shaughnessy shares Dr. Kirschbaum’s enthusiasm for eye care, telling me the ability to see clearly is “so critical to fulfilling your potential in your life” whether at school, work, or elsewhere. At Visionworks, which he touted as one of the largest providers of eye care in the United States with over 750 locations nationwide, O’Shaughnessy said the company’s overarching goal is to “simplify eye care.” He added Visionworks strives to ensure people have easy access to care and does so in the "most inclusive ways we can.” Like Dr. Kirschbaum, the mission is personally resonant to O’Shaughnessy, as he knows how hard it can be for people within marginalized communities to receive adequate medical care.
My interviews with both O’Shaughnessy and Dr. Kirschbaum occurred coincident with the Eyes of Hope Mobile Clinic making an appearance at Viscardi last month. The three-day outreach event provided comprehensive eye exams and eyewear free of charge to both students and staff. Dr. Kirschbaum is a proud volunteer of the program, saying the advent of the mobile clinic will enable doctors to “provide a unique approach tailored to these students and teachers and ensure we can provide them with inclusive and comprehensive care.” As a longtime volunteer, she’s seen firsthand the impact such an initiative can have on communities; the mobile clinic has helped more than 4 million people.
“This is just one example of the many ways Eyes of Hope is working to bring free vision care across the country and enable greater access. Programs like this are critical to expand access, but I’m also excited about how technology is enabling connection between optometrists and patients in new ways,” Dr. Kirschbaum said. “Kids don’t always know they are experiencing vision issues or know how to articulate it [to an adult]. The best thing a parent can do is schedule an annual comprehensive eye exam. The sooner visual impairment and eye issues are identified and addressed, the better the outcome.”
For O’Shaughnessy’s part, he told me he was “so excited” to volunteer at the mobile clinic in large part because he once was part of the student population and knows the struggle is real when it comes to vision problems. He said volunteering was a “full circle moment” for him and noted the campus looks the same in the two decades since graduating. The students were nice to work with, and it was “wild” for him to reconnect with many of his old teachers and administrators at the event. All told, O’Shaughnessy told me he enjoyed volunteering immensely.
“What a gift it [was] to be a part of delivering free eye care and glasses to these students who might otherwise not have access to it,” he said.
Dr. Kirschbaum echoed O’Shaughnessy’s sentiments. “Access to these eye exams can be so crucial to kids succeeding in school,” she said.
When asked how technology plays a role in providing better eye care, Dr. Kirschbaum said a “big gap” in care, for vision or anything else, is access for individuals living in what she called “healthcare deserts.” It’s an issue that isn’t new in the slightest, as she said it has been prevalent for “generations.” Nevertheless, Dr. Kirschbaum is happy to see this inaccessibility getting the much-needed attention it so deserves. Remote eye exams, she said, are beneficial because a patient can be somewhere with a technician while the doctor is in another location administering the exam. The technology represents a key development because, according to Dr. Kirschbaum, it “helps solve some of the access gaps where doctors may not be as widely available in rural communities.”
As to the future of eye care, Dr. Kirschbaum told me she’s excited about advancements driven by technology which helps makes providing vision care more accessible and efficient for doctors, as well as those which help people who are Blind or low vision accessibly navigate the world. She pointed to devices, powered by augmented reality, that enable a person to move through their surroundings. Companies such as eSight and OrCam, both companies previously covered in this column, are two manufacturers of such products designed for the visually impaired.
