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Opening Eyes beginnings can be traced back to 1991 when Dr. Paul Berman, a board member of the Sports Vision Section of the American Optometric Association, now Global Clinical Director of Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes, offered vision screenings for Special Olympics athletes at the World Summer Games in Minnesota. Optometrist volunteers discovered that about one third of the athletes screened needed glasses and that 66 percent had not had an eye exam within the previous three years. Yet, diagnosing the problems and offering prescriptions were not enough; many athletes needed corrective lenses. By the following World Summer Games in 1995, Dr. Berman and his colleagues were providing glasses for athletes donated from the ophthalmic community, in addition to screening for vision deficiencies. From this initial launch until now, Opening Eyes has provided thousands of opportunities to vision care professionals from across the world to volunteer to provide free vision screenings for tens of thousands of Special Olympics athletes.
Initially working with the Sports Vision Section (SVS) of the American Optometric Association (AOA) — Dr. Berman is a past chair of the SVS and he later began building the Special Olympics Opening Eyes program. The Sports Vision Section of the AOA consists of more than 500 optometrists throughout the USA involved with the vision screenings of athletes of all ages and abilities at events such as the US Olympics Festival, Olympics Sports Festival, and the Junior Olympics.
The first screening conducted in association with Special Olympics was at the 1991 World Summer games in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. At that event, 370 athletes were screened. Athletes who failed the evaluation or needed follow-up were referred to their local eye care practitioners. This initial experience highlighted the largely unmet need for quality vision and eye health care for Special Olympics athletes.
The 1995 World Summer Games in Connecticut marked a turning point in the Opening Eyes program. Instead of athletes receiving only a summary sheet recommending further care, direct clinical care was provided on site. The program expanded to include not only screening tests, but also refractions (tests to determine eyeglass prescriptions) and the fabrication of prescription glasses. A total of 905 athletes were evaluated and 400 pairs of prescription eyeglasses were distributed free of charge at the Connecticut games.
At the end of 1997, Special Olympics assimilated this vision program and a dental screening program called Special Smiles to create the Healthy Athletes Initiative into its corporate structure. The program was then known as the Special Olympics Opening Eyes Vision Health Program. The Lions Clubs International Foundation donation in 2000 made it possible to expand Special Olympics' Opening Eyes initiative globally, and the program named changed to Special Olympics-Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes.
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