Non-profit provides reading glasses to workers in developing countries impacts quality of products

NEW YORK - Jan. 11, 2024 - PRLog -- Vision correction through reading glasses, costing a couple of dollars a pair, is one of the most powerful health interventions that can improve the productivity of workers in economically developing countries.

By providing workers in the garment industry, tea, coffee, cocoa, and many other factory-based and farm workers with eyeglasses productivity improvements boost businesses, local economies, and the livelihoods of the workers themselves. These productivity improvements can range from 22%-31.8% and have been proven in a study conducted by a team of international academics and published in The Lancet.

The scale of the challenge is huge. The World Health Organization estimates that more than a billion people worldwide are without the glasses they need to see clearly.

US non-profit, VisionSpring has already corrected the vision of 10 million people with eyeglasses. Specific to the garment and home goods sector, it has screened the vision of more than half a million factory workers in India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.

Approximately one in three people in these factories, doing jobs such as sewing clothes or shoes, were unable to properly see what they were doing. Blurry vision leads to mistakes and can shorten their career as they become less efficient. After workers received eyeglasses, supervisors reported a 20% to 63% reduction in product defects at quality checkpoints.

This issue has a direct impact on US businesses and consumers because of the dependence on imports for many products that come from low-income countries with low rates of vision correction.

VisionSpring CEO, Ella Gudwin explains: "Many products we buy every day across America are made in factories in places we work like India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.  A third of these factory workers are coping with uncorrected blurry vision. Most just need a pair of reading glasses that you and I can purchase for a few dollars in any corner pharmacy or bookshop."

She added, "Many industries are investing millions in technologies to improve factory productivity. One such technology, a 700-year-old innovation that is being overlooked, is eyeglasses. Workplace sight correction is a simple, affordable way to improve business' bottom-line and workers' well-being and livelihoods. And there is a knock-on effect to consumers who receive higher quality products, and to the environment as less material is wasted."

VisionSpring already works with some big brands from the fashion world, including Levi Strauss, the VF Corporation (owner of brands including The NorthFace, Vans, and Timberland), Deckers Brands (owner of brands such as UGG and HOKA). It has also received a gift from MacKenzie Scott to further its work.

VisionSpring is at a critical moment as it seeks to bring more US businesses into its screening programs. For more information about getting involved with VisionSpring's screening programs, contact scott.schroeder@visionspring.org.