From the Tuscaloosa News

UA students help make an impact with eye screenings
Group’s goal is to get students involved in helping communities

  

By Adam Jones
Staff Writer
November 16, 2004

TUSCALOOSA | Gwendolyn Sutton didn’t get her eyes checked until she was in the eighth grade. By then, it was too late to save her sight. Now, decades later, Sutton is legally blind.

“My family was rather poor, and we couldn’t afford to have my eyes tested," she said. “I don’t think anybody knew it was as bad as it was, because when you can’t see well, you don’t know what you can’t see."

Sutton had to retire from teaching eight years ago and now runs a day care at Christian Community Church Learning Center.

On Monday, she let a group of college students come and screen children’s eyes in hopes of affording them what she didn’t have.

“The earlier you test children, the more able they are to have a normal life," Sutton said.

Impact, a nonprofit group launched this year, held the eye screenings for most of the 52 children in the day care and will do six more screenings this week in Tuscaloosa County.

Six students from the University of Alabama and an Impact staff member set up shop in a room with a special camera that can spot potential problems such as nearsightedness or lazy eye.

The camera, designed by NASA for use in orbiting telescopes, catches eye problems by making the eyes a kind of mirror.

A child’s face is put on a headrest at the end of a straight rod attached to the camera. Perfectly aligned with the lens, the eyes reflect the flash.

If the child’s whole eye reflects the light, appearing as red, then the eye is probably normal. Variations likely indicate a problem.

The flash in nearsighted eyes, for example, reflects at the bottom of the eye. A lazy eye, or amblyopia, barely reflects.

“It’s an opportunity to prevent something with just five seconds of work," UA student Trey Hayes said.

Once screened, the pictures are sent to Vision Research, the company that lets Impact borrow the camera. Technicians there determine which children should visit an optometrist.

Since most of the screenings are performed in day cares and Head Start programs serving underprivileged children, Impact links families with Sight Savers of Alabama, a nonprofit that pays for eye care to disadvantaged children, said Josh Payne, an Impact staff member.

However, the screenings aren’t the goal of Impact, Payne said.

Started by Stephen Black, the grandson of Hugo Black, the organization seeks to involve college students in programs that teach social justice and offer results to the communities, Payne said.

This year, Payne, who graduated from UA in May, and others went to nine college campuses in Alabama to recruit students, and so far have held screenings in the Florence area.

The group sought motivated students by speaking to honors programs and student governments, he said.

“They are the college-educated in Alabama, and we want them to give back and understand the importance of systematic change," Payne said.

Some of the 35 UA students who went through a day-long training are getting course credit, but Andrew Freeman said he didn’t do it for credit.

“It’s a project where you can see results," he said.

The students had their hands full with the daunting task of getting preschoolers to stay calm in a dark room and look into a camera they can’t see.

“You don’t know what to expect of the kids," said UA student Jennifer Hood. “It’s a learning process."

 

 

 

 

 

 



One-year-olds Kiera Maddox, left, and Ariel Reese wait for University of Alabama sophomore Maroun Ghoussein to adjust a camera at Christian Community Church Learning Center. Also pictured is day care worker Annie Cameron. The children’s eyes were screened with a special camera to detect potential problems such as nearsightedness or lazy eye.

Staff photo | Dan Lopez