VisionQuest 20/20: On a Mission to Improve Children’s Vision

Statistics show that 1 in every 4 children has some form of vision deficit. While most of them are easily treated when caught early on, many of these kids are not aware that they’re experiencing vision problems which can cause a delay in detection. In some cases, these issues with vision can lead to bigger problems such as partial blindness.

VisionQuest 20/20, a non-profit organization founded in 2003, aims to solve this problem by providing tools for early vision deficit detection and establishing a vision screening program across the United States of America. The organization, originally called The Amblyopia Foundation of America, has developed an accurate vision deficit screening system called EyeSpy 20/20. The system is designed for kids and does not feel like an eye exam at all because it comes in the form of a video game. The eye exam checks for depth perception, visual acuity, and color vision while the child wearing special glasses plays a game for 2-3 minutes. The organization chose schools as the best place to begin the implementation of their screening program because it is where the most number of children congregate, eliminating the need to invite parents to bring their kids in for screening.

VisionQuest 20/20 was founded by pediatric ophthalmologist James W. O'Neil, MD and computer and Richard Tirendi, a computer and electrical engineer – both of whom have had been professionally and personally impacted by vision deficits and disorders. O’Neil has been using computers and the internet to diagnose visual disorders in his young patients and thought that the same technology can be applied to create a standardized screening program that can detect a number of visual problems in school children across the country. He came up with EyeSpy 20/20 with the help of Tirendi who himself had temporarily lost his vision as a child due to an insect bite.