Lenses for Your Worldview

In a previous life I taught paragliding, alongside working as a business development manager (BDM) for a group of opticians. An unusual combination perhaps, but read on and you’ll understand why my paragliding role gave me a unique insight for my day job.

Part of my BDM role was market research, so I had my eyes tested a lot! The shortest test was under 10 minutes, the longest over 40 minutes.

One optometrist would not say I didn’t need a correction; he just kept showing me the +0.50/-0.25 x 90 and asking me if I thought I needed it. Another told me I had no prescription and shouldn’t need another eye exam for five years minimum. Yet another tried to sell me a pair of Plano sunspecs.

My next-door neighbour, a non-driver, doesn’t wear his specs. He is a myope with a cyl (-1.50/-1.00 x 80), yet he says he doesn’t need them! I am a +2.00 hyperope and see 6/6 without correction, but if I am not wearing my specs I am looking for them!

Each to their own, as my father would say, but that works both ways. People should have a choice and, aside from legal requirements such as driving, they should be allowed to decide how well they see. I have had spectacles returned to my practice because they make everything too clear! And I have had complaints that the person cannot read subtitles (from 25 feet on a 14-inch monitor)...

It sounds patronizing, but for some people 0.25 makes a difference and for others 1.50 is insignificant. It is not for us to dictate or quantify the benefit, it is our role to present it and ask if it helps.

The +0.50/-0.25 x 90 prescription I once needed? Yes, I had it made up and, at 3000 feet, it could make the difference between me seeing power lines or not – vital as a paraglider when it comes to landing safely. It was my choice. At no point in any of the visual task analysis did anyone ask me, “Do you need to see a wire 8 cm wide from a distance of 3000 feet?” But that is what I used those specs for and it was my choice.

In my mind, they saved my life on more than one occasion.