UA Students Help Alabama Children with Vision Care Program

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Students from The University of Alabama have provided vision screening to young children across Alabama through Focus First, a campus-based initiative.

The students have been participating in service-learning through Focus First, an initiative of Impact Alabama that is sponsored by the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility. With supervision from Impact Alabama staff, the UA students have joined with students from other colleges to provide high-tech vision screening to preschool children.

During the 2009-2010 academic year, some 79 UA students volunteered their time to provide critically needed vision screenings to children living in rural and urban communities.

The student volunteers screened 3,284 children at 111 daycare centers in 20 counties around the state.  Last year, 313 children, or 10.3 percent of those screened, have been found to have potential vision problems and received subsidized follow-up care as necessary through Sight Savers of Alabama.

UA students screened children in the following counties: Tuscaloosa, Bibb, Marengo, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Jefferson, Baldwin, Mobile, Coffee, Houston, Dale, Geneva, Monroe, Escambia, Clarke and Conecuh.

More than 250 UA students have participated in screenings in the last six years. They have screened 10,769 children at 335 day care centers in more than 27 counties throughout the state.  Also during those six years, 1,022 children, or 9.5 percent of those screened, have been found to have potential vision problems and received subsidized follow-up care as necessary through Sight Savers of Alabama.