EnChroma makes glasses for outdoor
and indoor use, both for people with
and without a prescription. There are
also glasses for children and for
usewhile playing sports.
Prices for adult glasses start at $349.
McPherson said the company is
working now on securing approvals
to release EnChroma contact lenses.
Currently, there are no optometry
practices in Canada that carry test
kits for EnChroma glasses, but the
company is hoping to change that
in 2016.
The glasses can be purchased online
at www.enchroma.com.
eSight Glasses
Ontario-based eSight Eyewear has
developed electronic-assisted,
customizable glasses that enable people
with low vision and legal blindness
to see.
Taylor West, vice-president of
outreach and advocacy, said eSight
eyewear has been able to help about
three out of every four people with
low vision that try out the product.
It's an amazing feeling, she said, to
see people benefit from the product
for the first time.
“We like to say that our mission is to
'make blindness history' and eSight
employees are lucky enough to see
those effects every day,” she said.
“We get to see people use eSight
to change their lives whether that
means getting a job they didn't think
possible due to vision loss, excelling
at school without other aids or enjoying
their families and communities by
seeing the things that they previously
missed out on.”
eSight eyewear, available since 2013,
uses a high-resolution camera to
capture what the user is looking at
and projects those images in
real-time onto two LED screens in
front of the wearer's eyes, according
to the company's website.
West said the device has been shown
to work for people aged eight to 88
with any of the most common causes
of vision loss, including macular
degeneration, diabetic retinopathy
and some forms of glaucoma.
The Canadian National Institute for
the Blind, which has partnered with
eSight, said the technology can have a
remarkable impact on a person's life.
“It’s an exciting device that can
enable some people to recapture
activities they haven’t experienced in
decades, like watching their kids play
soccer or reading the Sunday
morning newspaper,” John Rafferty,
president and CEO of CNIB, said in a
post on the organization's website.
Each pair of eSight glasses costs
$19,500 CDN, but the company says
it will do everything possible, through
sponsors and funding organizations,
to help people purchase a unit.
West said the company is “working
hard” to secure more partnerships
with governments, clinicians and
other providers of services to people
with low vision.
Anyone interested in trying eSight
glasses or learning more about their
product can visit
www.esighteyewear.com.