Sight & Hearing Association (SHA) health staff screened over 12,000 children in this past year, providing vision and hearing screening from infancy to high school. Of the children we screened, 89 percent lived at or below poverty level, which is a historically high percentage in SHA’s over 50 years of screening children. The need for vision health care also increased this past year with nearly 1,300 children referred to our Vision Voucher Project for Kids – a Project that provides financial assistance to uninsured, low-income children who have been identified as having a vision issue that would require medical attention. Amblyopia was detected in nearly 150 preschool children we screened and if left undetected and untreated, a child is at risk of a lifetime of blindness in the eye that is weakened by this vision condition. The parent of a child we screened who has amblyopia commented she “told many parents and friends about how your organization [SHA] caught amblyopia in my daughter and it’s one thing to have your child squinting or showing signs of vision problems, but with what she has, it would not have been detected without your screening. Our pediatrician did not catch a vision problem at her kindergarten check-up; their tests were just not as thorough as your screening. By the time my daughter is 8 or 9, she may not even need glasses, but without your screening by 8 or 9 it would have been too late to correct. We are extremely grateful.”

Sight & Hearing Association’s (SHA) goals for this current year is to maintain our vision and hearing screening and education outreach to over 10,000 children and 5,000 adults; maintain a vision and hearing referral accuracy rating of 85 percent; through our Vision Voucher Project for Kids, provide follow-up care to uninsured, low-income children who need eye exams and eyeglasses; expand our healthcare vision provider network through our Vision Voucher Project for Kids that assists children in medically underserved communities; revise and market Know Noise, SHA’s award-winning hearing conservation curriculum for school-age children; continue our statewide hearing conservation health campaigns –our annual Noisy Toys List and audiologist participation during Noise Awareness Day in April; increase outreach to parents and caregivers of preschool and school-age children regarding the importance of vision and hearing health and a child’s ability to learn; explore expansion of our preschool vision and hearing screening services to home-based childcare and community centers; increase partnerships with like-minded nonprofit organizations, clinics and community groups serving the health needs of children; and continue developing the Hearing Aid Bank of Minnesota, which will provide financial assistance to adults and children in need of hearing aids.

All ages are served by our vision and hearing screening and education programs.

The Sight & Hearing Association serves residents in the State of Minnesota.