This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Development Report.
The World Health Organization estimates as many asone-thousand-million people around the world cannot see correctly.About ninety percent of these people are in poor countries. Theyneed corrective glasses for their eyes, but cannot get them. This ispartly because there are not enough trained eye doctors in mostdeveloping countries. In addition, corrective eyeglasses cost a lotof money.
One man is trying to change this. Joshua Silver is a physicist atOxford University in Britain. He has created eyeglasses that permitwearers to correct their own vision. The glasses are called adaptiveglasses. The lenses of the glasses are filled with a special fluid.A person can change the strength of the lenses by turning a smalldevice attached to the glasses.
The device changes the amount of fluid in the lenses. A personchanges the shape and power of the lenses until he can see mostclearly. The whole process takes less than a minute.
The glasses do not correct for astigmatism, or the abnormal shapeof the eye. However, they improve the ability of people to see closeup and far away. Mister Silver estimates that the glasses can helpabout ninety percent of the people who need to improve theirvision.Mister Silver formed a company to research and develop thespecial glasses six years ago. It is called Adaptive Eyecare. Thegoal of the company is to provide low-cost corrective glasses topeople in developing countries. Models of the glasses have beentested in Africa and Asia. Now, the company is preparing to sellseveral hundred-thousand glasses to Ghana for about ten dollarseach.
The Ghanaian government is seeking aid from the World HealthOrganization to help pay for the glasses. Mister Silver expects theprice of the glasses to drop once technology and manufacturingimprove. However, he says the glasses should not be a replacementfor eye care or treatment for eye diseases.
If you have a computer, you can find out more about these specialglasses at the Adaptive Eyecare Internet Web page. The address iswww dot adaptive dash eyecare dot com. (www.adaptive-eyecare.com).
Or you can write to the company at Adaptive Eyecare Limited, theOxford Center for Innovation, Mill Street, Oxford, oh-x-two,zero-j-x, United Kingdom.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.