02/03/2012
College research points to poor quality of ready readers
Research commissioned by the College of Optometrists shows that many ready-made spectacles are not of appropriate quality to meet required standards.
Following the publication of a Which? report on ready-made reading glasses in October 2010, the College commissioned Professor David Elliott at Bradford University to carry out further research based on a much larger sample size.
Professor Elliot’s team assessed over 300 ready readers from a wide range of high-street stores, with costs ranging from £1 to £32. They examined how closely each pair met the advertised specifications, the positioning of the lenses in the frames and whether the centres of the lenses were likely to fall within the range for average pupillary distance (PD) in the UK population. They found that:
• Just over half of all ready-made spectacles in the study provided the optical standards required of them by the relevant British and European Standard
• Higher-powered spectacles (+3.50DS) were more likely to have errors
• The quality of ready-made spectacles could be easily improved by the use of more appropriate centration for the work they are intended for
