Fort Worth resident Jamarcus Williams, 17, sat in front of a wooden wall. Through his virtual reality glasses, however, he explored the inside of an eyeball.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty cool. At first, I was kind of nervous, but then excited,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淵ou can see the inside of the eyeball. It shows you everything. It was fun learning about how your eye works.鈥�
Williams participated in tent on on April 8. The tent provided visual acuity tests, intraocular pressure measurements, or eye-pressure readings, and retinal imaging that are meant to evaluate eye health.
Alcon performed screenings from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. April 8 at the intersection of Main and 5th streets.
Volunteers from , and the helped with the non-invasive eye health screenings. Usually, eye screenings dilate the patient鈥檚 pupils, which blurs the vision temporarily.
Sean Powell, the director of professional development at Alcon, said the visual screenings at the festival took only a few minutes and allowed people to go right back to the arts festival without any blurry vision.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the perfect setting to remind people how precious their eyesight is and the steps that they need to take to protect it,鈥� Powell said.
The eye-pressure measurements allow doctors to identify glaucoma and take the proper steps to prevent it from spreading.
鈥淲e call glaucoma the silent thief of sight because it doesn鈥檛 create blurry vision. It doesn鈥檛 hurt and it takes a person鈥檚 vision from the outside in. So, before they even realize there鈥檚 a visual problem, they鈥檝e already lost a significant amount of vision,鈥� Powell said. 鈥淚t can鈥檛 regenerate. So, once you鈥檝e lost that vision, you鈥檝e lost it forever.鈥�
Williams went through all three stations and the virtual reality eyeball tour. He said he will check his eyes more often.
Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by or via . At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy .
