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Testimonials
Timothy Goetz
Close to twenty years ago, I sat in front of my ophthalmologist, listening, as he explained that there wasn’t anything more, optically that could be done. You know the drill, “not all eye problems can be addressed by stronger glasses, surgery won’t help eyes that wiggle all the time and besides, there had to be some nerve damage and everyone knows nerves don’t improve. Floaters simply come with age. Be satisfied, learn to live . . .” At the time, he was probably right, but time passes quickly, and now my first Ocutech device, the VESA auto-focus is nearly eight years old!
I first heard about Ocutech from my brother, he had purchased one of the earlier models through a University based low-vision clinic in 1995. He’s a computer geek and had to see what others were doing ‘on screen’. He also commuted via a moped and thought the Ocutech would help him to see the stoplights. When he heard that I was headed back-to-school, he stopped by to show me how the Ocutech might help me.
You see, teachers just don’t appreciate it when a student has to walk up in front of the class to get close enough to the board to get the notes, but I had failed Calculus twice already, and was at the place where I was going to do what it took, after all, school’s not cheap! It didn’t take a long to convince me that there had to be a solution, maybe Ocutech was it.
I was at NC State by that time and they had procured several devices for students that can’t see too well. If I found them useful they were more than willing to loan them out. I tried them all, and they did work, in very specific, limited applications, but they were one size fits all, and obviously designed without much input from the user. These types of devices have their place, but they really weren’t what I’d hoped to find.
It was 1998 and the internet was picking up steam, Ocutech had a website. I had talked with my brother; the Ocutech he had chosen was a manual focus unit with 2X magnification. I didn’t think 2X was strong enough and knew that having to focus every time my gaze traveled from the board, to my textbooks, to my notes, and back to my professor, was not a good thing. The website touted a 4X auto-focus. I made an appointment to see Dr Greene. The decision to purchase that first Ocutech is one of those rare events that fit into the ‘life changing’ category.
I did graduate from school, magne cum laude in engineering. It took a lot of help from a lot of different folks. NC Division of Services for the Blind actually paid for that first Ocutech, Georgena Clayton, their counselor was always there when I needed help. Once the professors knew I was there to work, they worked with me. NC State is a great place to go to school!
But, I had gone to school to get a job and jobs were scarce in 2002. I did the usual things, career fairs, dozens and dozens of resumes, nobody seemed interested. Then at one of the career fairs an older gentleman walked up and we started talking. He was a civilian employee of the US military and was looking for someone with a “lets do it” attitude. He’d eavesdropped a little, and thought that since I had made it through school, with honors, even though I couldn’t see very well I should be able to handle the “bureaucracy’ of the federal workplace. I traveled to Maryland, he made an offer and I took it. Little did I know . . .
The military has rules, mostly intended to keep people safe. I work with ‘energetic materials’, to the lay person, that’s stuff that goes “swoosh and BOOM!”. My job is to design and fabricate systems that take x-rays of these items. The military has rules against a ‘blind’ guy handling this kind of thing, you know, “safety first”. They told me I had to pass an eye test, both eyes had to meet mil-spec, or I would be changing jobs. I made another call to Dr. Greene. He told me Ocutech could build a unit that would meet the need. They did, and the military paid for it through their CAP program. I passed the eye test with ‘flying colors’, and went back to work. My boss retired and I took his place.
I need to take a break here and just talk about the Ocutech devices themselves because the story does continue and now I have THREE Ocutech’s, but you need to understand what they are and how they work and why they’ve proven to be the most appropriate choice for so many with low vision. I am an engineer for the military and much of what I design and build uses sophisticated optics so I have both an understanding of the physics behind the Ocutech and an appreciation for the intense design effort that went into these devices. I should also mention that I am not receiving compensation for any of my efforts to promote the Ocutech device. I volunteered to write this article simply because I found Ocutech to be extraordinarily useful in my day to day living.
I’ve learned a lot of lessons in trying to accommodate my vision. You can’t really evaluate solutions, without first taking a very close look at the problem. This starts with an eye examination by a professional with as much experience with your particular eye condition as you can find. I’ve been to a lot of ‘low vision’ specialists, private ‘world-renown’ doctors, university based clinics, and even the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Greene has proven to be the best for me. He and all the folks at Ocutech understand the need and the various solutions intimately. Once your visual limitations are known the next step is to look at what you need to see. The classroom, the grocery store (yes, now I can see what’s on the bottom shelf, without getting down on my knees!), job related equipment, or the grandkids in the backyard. These scenarios combined with the usual concerns of comfort, ease of use, aesthetics, and reliability are the basis on which this most important decision should be based. I have recently learned to drive, using the Ocutech. My new position in management requires that I see more things from further away than ever before. I am back at Ocutech, beta testing their latest manual focus 6x device. It’s sleek, light-weight, dependable and proving to be the tool of choice for those excessive PowerPoint presentations in the auditorium. In fact, this tool allows me to pick out details the ‘normally sighted’ can’t even see.
I would encourage anyone seriously looking for solutions to their visual challenges to talk with the folks at Ocutech. They take the right approach. They don’t try to make something fit, just because its ‘in stock’. They follow the process outlined above. It takes time and Ocutech may not be the solution for you. They will not sell you something that doesn’t work for you. Now, back to the story:
I tend to be a little rough on things. The other day I was taking down a 50 foot tall tree in the neighbor’s yard. I had to cable it away from the power lines. It was the dual optic device Dr. Greene had built for the workplace that proved most useful. This yard was full of trees and other obstacles. I needed the slightly improved depth perception of this device to make sure the cable ran where I needed it to go. The tree fell, right where I wanted it to go, and I cut it up for fire wood. The problem started when I took a break, changed glasses and put the Ocutech down in the truck bed. Guess where my friends tossed the firewood. The frame was damaged, although the device wasn’t hurt. I made another call to Mac, Dr Greene’s optician, I needed an arm, and quick, as this Ocutech is the one I like to use for driving.
My work requires that I assemble large machines; one I’m working on now is almost twenty feet tall. We’re up and down ladders, on and off fork trucks, and guiding overhead cranes to place the bigger parts. Here’s where the 4X VESA really shines. It doesn’t matter where I look, from the clipboard to the ceiling, everything is visible and in focus. I can say that I have yet to break any of my Ocutechs but I should mention that although they’ve withstood several sudden collisions with roll bars, lift cages and structural steel parts as well as survived a few unplanned trips to the floor, this level of severe service should not be the routine. Remember, I’m an engineer, I understand and accept risk. These devices are highly engineered, precision optical devices and they certainly deserve far more respect than I can give. Although, Ocutech does not warrant the device against such abuse, they are a full-service organization.
I could, and I may write an entire article on driving, but here’s a short version. I live thirty nine miles from work; work is only thirty miles from Washington DC. My wonderful wife has, for the last twenty three years driven me everywhere I’ve needed to go, and you should have guessed by now that I tend to be on the move. I am also blessed with many excellent friends who have helped to get me out and about. But with rising gas prices, and the increased complexity of my job, I was wasting a lot of time just trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B.
Again, it was my brother who told me that Virginia had a bi-optic driving license. My eyes are a little worse than my brother’s; he’s been driving for several years on the regular ‘low vision’ license. I thought I’d give it a try. The process was straight-forward and yet fairly complex. The state examiner (and yes, it is a specially trained person) proved knowledgeable and very helpful. I did receive some inaccurate information from the local DMV, so I encourage you to talk with someone at the state level to avoid making the same mistakes I did. In Virginia, your bi-optic skills are tested before you can take the test for the learners permit. The examiner takes you for ride and you describe what you can see, as though you were actually driving. If you pass this test you can get a learners, which you must use for thirty days before you again meet with the examiner to take your driving test. Biotic drivers must retake the road test, every year to keep their licenses. Like I said, doable, but complicated.
I use either my 4X VESA (with its auto-focus turned off) or the 3X dual eyepiece device, depending on what I need to see. There’s a larger field of view through the dual optic device, but I cannot read most street signs fast enough, so if I know where I’m going or expect complicated traffic patterns, I use the dual eyepiece device. When I need the signage, I use the VESA. It takes more to drive than I expected, it is certainly not for the ‘faint of heart’, although I am beginning to enjoy it. I know my wife likes the idea; it’s given her back about four hours a day!
In closing, I’d like to thank you for considering Ocutech as possible solution to your low vision problem. My email and phone are listed below, if you want a user’s perspective, I am more than happy to share my experiences with you.
Timothy Goetz
