Low Vision Day Event Features Helpful Vision Tools and Inspiring Opticianry Grad Story

August 18, 2023

Franklin Cummings Tech’s Opticianry program this week hosted a special Low Vision Day event for students from the Carroll Center for the Blind, featuring a guided sensory tour of our campus, a demonstration of devices and instruments to aid low-vision individuals by a representative from Eschenbach, and a talk by Franklin Cummings Tech Opticianry alumni Adam Estapa, a legally blind dispensing optician and business owner.

“This collaboration with the Carroll Center helps our students understand the needs of their students and other individuals with low-vision,” said Opticianry Instructor George Bourque Jr. “And their students can see what our program has to offer.”

The five Carroll Center students are completing a vocational program, which matches them with paid jobs at a variety of organizations and features weekly field trips to various employer sites and college campuses. Carroll Center Workforce Development Specialist Marianne Gilmore said the visit to Franklin Cummings Tech was a great way to expose the students to potential careers in technology fields or the trades.

“This type of event exposes our students to an array of options,” she said. “It shows them that you can find these great classroom experiences and you can do these things.”

James Benson, a rising sophomore in the Opticianry associate degree program, said the event was a great learning experience. “It’s really important to be able to interact with all types of people because it opens your eyes to a range of experiences in the world. I hope to work with low-vision people in a hospital setting, so this was really helpful.”

For the hands-on portion of the program, Jim Leahy, Northeast Territory Manager for the German manufacturer Eschenbach, brought a suitcase of the company’s latest devices and instruments that can ease eye strain and help low-vision individuals navigate the world more easily, such as illuminated magnifiers, binocular glasses, and colored lenses. Several of the Carroll students were able to see things better for the first time and the Franklin Cummings Tech students gained knowledge of tools that may prove useful in their future careers.

The event wrapped up with a terrific presentation from Adam Estapa, who graduated from the Opticianry program in 2016. He launched his own business, Perception Optical in Arlington, in January 2020. Estapa worked for several organizations before deciding to open his own shop. He said the best part about owning his own business is that he was able to create a space built that meets his needs, including a special raised desk that allows him to do close-up work more easily. “I wouldn’t recommend opening a new business during a pandemic, but it did allow me to take my time and decide exactly how I wanted to be successful,” he said.

Estapa said being legally blind gives him a special perspective in dealing with his clients. “When I tell them I’m legally blind, they say, ‘Ah, so you know what you’re doing!'” he said. ‘They understand that I’m going to help them because I live this experience every day of my life. They know they’re dealing with an optician, not a salesperson.”