Nonprofit gives away high-tech vision aids to 15 Pee Dee kids with severe visual impairment

FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) — Nonprofit organization Sight Savers of America gave away free take-home, high-tech vision aids to 15 children with severe visual impairment at the Pee Dee Education Service Center in Florence.

Fifteen severe visually-impaired children received high-tech vision aids, allowing them to magnify up to 118-times the object’s size. It also helps contrast colors and shapes, helping with educational and everyday activities.

Sight Savers of America Chief Program Officer Jennifer Haddox said a child with severe and permanent visual impairment often sees at 20-200, meaning they have to be 20 feet away from something that someone without visual impairment could see at about 200 feet away.

“You know, pointing in the camera back in their face or their mom’s face or being able to read, you know, letters on their own comfortably without the paper at their nose,” Haddox said. “You know, they’re [sitting] back like we do at a computer screen. It’s just thrilling to see their excitement.”

Hartsville Middle School 6th-grader Jack Threatt said the new portable aid makes him fortunate to have help from visual aid teachers from Sight Savers of America. He said his visual journey has been nothing short of uniquely his.

“Honestly, exciting,” Threatt said. “I get more things to play around with. They help me explore or to help do work or read something or do something.”

Let’s say one child with severe visual impairment wanted to focus on just one sentence while reading. This visual aid remote can allow them to use line markers, making things much easier to read.

Haddox said being able to see the children’s excitement while pointing the visual aid camera on their own faces or doing activities they enjoy with more clarity is something she never gets tired of.

“We hear things like, ‘I can read now,’ or ‘Mom, I can see your face,'” she said. “It’s really great to be a part of that.”

Threatt said he’s excited to now be able to read one of his favorite books, the “OG Man,” without having to have it read to him.

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Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter , Facebook or Instagram , and read more of her work here .

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