We’ve received a comment from an optometrist:
Interesting! I’ve been thinking the same thing when teaching at an optometry school in Hokkaido this week.
I started this job in the 1970s. There was this time I was examining the eyesight of over 300 patients in the summer holidays, with another optometrist, from morning to evening in a corridor or something of the eye department in the Kyoto University hospital.
Because those days, computer-aided refractometers (detects long/short-sightedness, astigmatism) didn’t exist, firstly we questioned whether the patient is long or short sighted, then whilst applying lenses, then circling between the eye chart and the patient, since there were no laser pointers at the time. But then, eventually I’d gained the skill to be able to predict if someone, especially children, have astigmatism, and estimate the level, by looking at the shape of their eyelids.
Also in the measurement of the corneal curvature, which requires almost professional skill, I could immediately see the tiny changes in the surface of the cornea, and felt that my attention to detail has been worked on thouroughly. The test data is laid out in my head as is, so I could select the curvature and strength of the patient’s contact lenses smoothly, and above all it was so fun that I could do it all day.
Today, optometrists just looksat the screen and, like a video game, can obtain the data just with a click of a switch, and then undergo further tests based on these, so I feel that optometrists realise less about the test results and the prescribed glasses or contacts. The basic principles of eye testing equipment haven’t changed for several decades. Many expensive, convenient machines using costly optical equipment have been released, but they only seem to be interested in measuring the minimum separable acuity and minimum visual acuity, and don’t seem to test what patients can and can’t see, particularly in those with severe sight loss.
If we stop using our wisdom, will humans just become idiots? This doesn’t tie in with the topic of inclusive design, but inconvenience certainly brings us wisdom.