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Purchasing eyeglasses online may offer convenience to consumers, but according to the American Optometric Association (AOA), the consequences of making an incorrect or uninformed purchase could cost patients more time and money in the long run.

Eyeglasses are an investment in your health and must be custom-fitted not only to be comfortable, but also to meet particular prescriptive needs, which only an eye doctor and optician can determine. 

“Without visiting an eye doctor, patients run the risk of purchasing eyeglasses online with an improper fit or receiving the wrong prescription altogether,” said Dr. Alison Halpin. “Ultimately, patients can expend more time dealing with order mistakes and making returns than had they simply visited their local optometrist in the first place.”

An AOA study published in 2011 with the Optical Laboratories Association and The Vision Council reinforces the drawbacks of online orders. The study concluded:

• Of 200 glasses ordered online, only 154 pairs were received

• 44.8 percent had incorrect prescriptions or safety issues

•   29 percent had at least one lens fail to meet required prescription

• 19 percent of adult lenses failed impact resistance testing

•   25 percent of children’s lenses failed impact resistance testing

Purchasing eyeglasses from a local optometrist is the AOA’s first and foremost recommendation, but if patients are still interested in making a purchase online, be warned that consumers need to do their homework before making a final decision.

“If a consumer believes that ordering a pair of glasses online is in their best interest, it is important for the consumer to be fully informed regarding the potential pitfalls in doing so,” Halpin said. “The peer-reviewed study revealed that nearly half of all glasses ordered online had either prescription errors or failed to meet minimum safety standards. Personally, I find that very scary. Patients deserve better than that.”

Be advised to consider the following factors before making a purchase online:

The fit and material of 
the eyeglasses

How the eyeglasses fit is critically important — if the fit is incorrect, not only can a patient experience discomfort, such as pinching and headaches, but can also cause additional vision problems.

Consumers also need to consider the various options available for the lenses, and what is best for their particular prescription and lifestyle. Lenses come in various materials, such as traditional plastic, as well as thinner, lighter materials. Other considerations are the different coatings and treatments available such as non-glare coatings and photochromic lenses.

The accuracy of the prescription

Just because the eyeglasses “look right” on a person’s face doesn’t mean the measurements are correct. Pupil distance (PD) determines where to place the center of each lens in your frames to customize the optics to your eyes. This measurement is necessary to ensure the eyeglasses serve your vision needs properly. 

Consumers need an optometrist or optician to provide the PD and ensure precise measurements. However, the PD is not part of your prescription and not normally provided unless you ask for it. Your optometrist or optician can even legitimately charge for the service of providing your PD. The measurements needed for multifocals can only be accurately made once the frame is selected and properly fitted to your face, so typically this measurement is simply estimated for eyeglasses available online.

The retailer’s policies on purchases

• Returns: What is the website’s return policy if you are not satisfied with your purchase? How will the website deal with issues of prescription inaccuracies or other mistakes (wrong lenses coatings, wrong color, etc.)?

• Warrantees: Does the online retailer offer protection against lens scratching, how long this may be covered and what needs to be done to replace scratched lenses. How long is the frame warranty? What about children’s frames?

• Shipping: The cost and timeliness of shipments varies. Who pays for shipping returns?

• Pricing: Are protective eyeglass cases and cleaning cloths included, or are they “extras” added to the cost?

• Insurance: Some websites do not accept vision insurance. If you have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), check to see what’s required to accept this as payment.

• Maintenance: Some websites provide a contact for this and may offer online tips for minor adjustments, but it might mean shipping your glasses away and being without them until the service is completed and they are returned.

For more in-depth detail about factors to consider before purchasing eyeglasses online, visit www.aoa.org to read a brochure offered by the AOA.

As the leaders of primary eye care in the United States, doctors of optometry are crucial in helping patients achieve optimum eye health and vision, and are the best resource to offer the highest quality eyeglasses.

Susan Halstead is a NYS and Nationally Licensed Optician and the Owner of Family Vision Care Center on Lake Avenue in Saratoga Springs. Please feel free to connect directly with Susan for information or questions related the above article at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Connecting Local Businesses With Creativity And Expertise Of Skidmore Students.

 Open Canvas Co-founders Ezra Levy (right) and Marcella Jewell (left) working on the website of their business venture. Photo by Morgan Gruer, Skidmore College Class of 2016.

By Colette Linton

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Two Skidmore College students, juniors Ezra Levy and Marcella Jewell, began working on an idea together last September to create a platform that both students of traditional creative fields and small businesses could approach to pair the skill sets of students with the needs of local companies.

Differing from the usual structure of an internship, the project-oriented approach invites both sides of the transaction to the digital easel, draw up a concise plan detailing the desired outcome, resulting with each party walking away with a piece of finished work in a short time frame.

"It's that kind of short burst experience where you make a lot of connections, get a lot of work done, and you have something to show for it," Levy, Open Canvas co-founder and a student of business and art administration, or "creative entrepreneurship", said. "It is hard for students to graduate with all the skill sets they have learned in the classroom and not having applied them."

The short-term projects allow students to accumulate multiple works to add to their portfolios during their time as college students as opposed to a semester-long internship whose parameters may not be as clearly defined as a project through Open Canvas.

Still in its beginning phases, but wholly operational and successful, Open Canvas had 40 students sign up during its first week of operation. It is currently fostering about 25 projects with numerous projects that have already been completed by students with area businesses.

Students join the Open Canvas community by uploading their profile to its website. On the other end, businesses, students, organizations and nonprofits seeking student participation and or creativity request a "college creative", an online profile outlining the intended project. Levy and Jewell follow up with the college creative form by further developing the project idea one-on-one with its originator. Then, behind the scenes, they undertake the matchmaking process, pairing students with a well-defined project proposal.

Eventually, Levy and Jewell plan for the project to operate without having to manually pair a company's project proposal with a student's application. Students would then be able to apply to projects through Open Canvas' Web application, allowing for Levy and Jewell to focus more of their efforts on developing the business with the intention of expanding their service to include students outside the traditional creative fields. As of now, the focus has been facilitating opportunities for students and filling a need for local businesses.

"What we see as being more beneficial to a student right now is working for the small businesses locally where you can actually make a difference and have something to show for it," Levy said. "I know for me personally, I've worked with a lot of small businesses and nonprofits. I could not have learned anything if I did not have that on-the-ground experience. In a small organization you really get a chance to talk to everyone, and do real things. And that sounds vague and ambiguous, but it should because there are all kinds of stuff to be done and all kinds of stuff that they can trust a student to do."

Political science and computer science student Jewell is the chief operating officer, and co-founder, managing the website design and Web applications for Open Canvas. She said that the project appeals to students on two levels: one being the experience they gain while working on a project in a professional setting; and, two, is that the short-term projects Open Canvas facilitates are more compatible with student schedules.

"One of the reasons this is so attractive to students is because of the short-term burst of experience or project work that is really compatible with their lifestyle," she said. "Because I can have a really busy couple of weeks and a few weeks where I'm not as busy, I want to fill that time with the project that I find."

"We really do believe that Open Canvas will foster relationships and business partnerships that go beyond that initial short-term project, but the connection needs to be made before you can do anything, and we are making that connection for students," she said.

Freshman Nick Konrad, currently undeclared in his studies, is considering committing to a business and studio art major with a concentration in graphic design. He brought with him high school experience making posters for plays and personal projects on his laptop, but after completing three projects through Open Canvas with Greenhouse Salads, Saratoga Shakespeare Company and Skidmore-Saratoga Consulting Partnership, he has gained real-world experience in a field he may pursue as a career without disrupting his class schedule. 

"My favorite part of doing Open Canvas projects is getting to work with actual people to create something that would benefit them," Konrad said. "My skills help the business and in turn the experience helps me develop my abilities."

"What's great about Open Canvas is that it makes the initial connection for you, but it's up to you to really go out there and make it work. You are responsible with contacting the business and are held accountable for your actions-in that way it’s very real world. Without Open Canvas I honestly wouldn't even know where to start looking for projects like this," he said.

Barbara Opitz, executive director of Saratoga Shakespeare Company, contacted Open Canvas with a project to create a poster and bookmarks for the nonprofit. It was a project that otherwise would have been costly for the company and required additional assistance from their major supporters. However, through Open Canvas, Opitz met with two Skidmore College students willing to work on the project for a chance to exercise their expertise.

The project was finished in about a week and a half, during which the students were able to relay design ideas directly to Opitz for comment. The relationship that Open Canvas provided both parties was one of flexibility and direct communication between participants without the added supervisory work on the part of businesses that is associated with internships.

"It was a really good connection," she said. "The students are very talented. They are also very knowledgeable in terms of the technology and how to do things and they were very quick about responding to me in terms of doing the work. And I felt that this was a unique way to provide an opportunity for the students and also to help us as a nonprofit because we have a very limited budget. And I will use them again in the future."

Explore for yourself at www.projectopencanvas.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Local College Brings Experience In Online Education To Statewide Open SUNY

Laptop underarm, coffee in hand, homework and encroaching deadline on the mind, State University of New York’s (SUNY) Empire State College is leading the way to expand SUNY’s online education program catering to nontraditional students who juggle responsibilities between family and work.

SUNY Empire State College will be taking the lead in SUNY's online initiative, Open SUNY, to offer an option for college-level courses to the 6.9 million individuals in New York that have a high school diploma but no higher education.  The need for malleable class schedules that can be bent around a daily work schedule was a point in Chancellor Nancy Zimpher’s State of the University Address earlier in January when she said that of the job opportunities in 2050, 60 percent of them will require a bachelor’s degree.

In terms of Open SUNY, David Henahan, director of communications at Empire State College, said that the online system is a response to individuals who would like to continue education and get a degree but cannot because many of them are unable to study in the traditional setting.

“What we are experiencing is the demand from people for a more innovative way of learning,” he said. “The population is aging, and there are more adults in the market looking to gain more education for all sorts of reasons.”

Before Open SUNY, adult students have been balancing life's responsibilities with their studies at Empire State College for over two decades through Open SUNY Plus. Busy with work and study was never easy, but the college’s online administrative and teaching experience and the state-wide online degree initiative Open SUNY is expected to make higher education more accessible.

“We know that an individual with a bachelor's degree will earn approximately a million more in their lifetime compared to a high school graduate,” Henahan said. “So that learning will help an individual get a better job, broaden the tax base, and get more money.”

Open SUNY will host eight online degrees as well as online courses that originate from its 64 campuses across the state using a common set of online tools. Two of these degrees are coming from Empire State College as part of the initiative's initial rollout. One of the degree programs will be a bachelor’s in business, management and economics: human resources; and, the other, a bachelor’s in science, mathematics and technology: information systems.

Empire State College currently offers approximately 400 undergraduate and 100 graduate online courses. The average ages of its online undergraduate and graduate population are 35 and 40 years old, respectively.

“These people have lives, a family, building a career; so, they need school around their life,” Henahan said. “People across the country are looking to learn much differently and that learning has value. They don’t have the time and money to sit through it again. It is a convergence through which Empire State (College) and Open SUNY is all about. There's real demand.”

Today, about half of Empire State College’s 20,000 students study online, and many of the college’s 70,000 alumni have earned their associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees online, according to a press release of Empire State College.

Sandra Barkevich, Instructural Support Assistant at Empire State College, returned to school in 2010. She had a full-time job and two young children that were, and still are, involved in extracurricular activities in addition to participating on the Amsterdam Sea Rams swim team.

“Between work and getting the kids to swim practice five nights a week, going to a traditional school was out of the question,” Barkevich said. “Like so many other adults returning to college, I had to think outside of the box. Empire State College not only had a stellar reputation, but they were backed by SUNY. I could take courses on my own terms, and 'attend' classes when I was able to fit it into my busy schedule, even if that 'free' time happened to be at 10:30 p.m. after the kids were fast asleep or 4:30 a.m. before my husband and I had to get the kids up and ready for school.”

 Barkevich understood that returning to school would be an additional commitment, vying for time and attention; however, advancing in her job was not going to happen without a bachelor's degree, she said. With her family's support, she began her Bachelor of Science, Business and Economics degree through the Center for Distance Learning. After graduating from the program, she is now pursuing aMaster of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technologies program in the School for Graduate Studiesalso online.

“I loved my job and the company I was with, but could not see myself in the exact same position for the next 15-20 years, and it was clear that the only way to be considered for advancement would be to have a four-year degree,” Barkevich said. “So, I talked it over with my husband, who has been incredibly supportive, and with my kids, who were only nine and seven at the time, and made the decision to pursue a bachelor's degree.”

A similar motivation for pursuing a full-fledged online track in addition to being able wrap class lectures around a busy or unique schedule is for people who have been out of school for a number of years, is the possibility of customizing a learning atmosphere conducive to study.

To further explain, Mike Capobianco, now a graduate student at Long Island University, had not been in a classroom setting for almost ten years before returning at age 26. The thought of sitting in a lecture hall of students who were eight years younger was not appealing to him. In addition to that, Capobianco has anxiety. The ability to avoid a few sleepless nights and construct a suitable, calming environment either by himself or with others closer in age helped stop what might have ‘ended in disaster’ if he had chosen to enroll as a traditional student.

“Either I would have done bad in the classes or dropped out completely,” Capobianco said. “Instead, with the online studies, I was able to thrive, graduate with a 3.73 GPA and land a job that gave me health insurance. With that health insurance, I was able to see a doctor who has been successfully treating my anxiety, which has allowed me to attend graduate school in person, with no issues.”

As New York’s Department of Labor continues to coordinate with SUNY, more is looking to be done about addressing workforce needs and interests. Additional plans for the Empire State College’s initiative is to create more opportunities for students to gain college credit for job-related programs through the college’s business partnerships.