Brainstorm with me! How to improve access to prescription glasses

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Published 2024-08-01

This one time when my brother was unhoused, his glasses were literally stolen off his face as he was sleeping

So he ended up having to go to goodwill and finding a pair of glasses that kind of had a similar-ish enough prescription that he could mostly see

Now I’ve been thinking about this for YEARS since it happened, but as a marketer and person who’s interested in technology and community, I feel like this is a problem that the internet should pretty easily be able to band-aid. So I’m gonna brainstorm for a second

I feel like the rise of cheap online glasses stores like Zenni and Zeelool have created this trend of OVERCONSUMPTION of prescription glasses — like, whenever I get a new prescription I immediately go order two or three pairs, and some of them don’t look great or don’t fit great and so I have my glasses I like to wear, an emergency backup pair, and then I still have several extra pairs of glasses.

And when I google recycling glasses, the only thing that pops up is lions club but there’s no obvious way to donate or receive glasses, so I don’t think that’s a very good solution.

I feel like it would really not be that hard to create sort of a two-sided marketplace where you could list your spare glasses by like taking a picture and inputting your prescription information and someone could request them if t matches their prescription, and the technology would basically facilitate a free transaction.

That would require the person who needs the glasses to know their prescription, have access to the internet, and have a shipping address, which isn’t always the case, plus it would take a few days to receive the glasses which is a long ass time to wait if you can’t see.

Obviously actual real solution is to house people and ensure they have free access to all forms of healthcare, but talking about a vision for the future isn’t going to help people who lose or break or have their glasses stolen today

So what do you think a solution would be?

All Comments (2)

@beythehermit8279 7 days ago

I have seen anarchist mutual aid networks buy unhoused folks readers but distributing at the prescription level is going to be much more difficult, of course.