WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Triad eye doctor is helping create job opportunities for the visually impaired through a partnership with Industries for the Blind (IFB) Solutions. 

Dr. Lindsay Totten opened her first practice, Wise Eyes Family Eye Care, in Winston-Salem in April 2021. She’s had a passion for helping the low vision community since she started practicing.

Totten spent some time at the William Feinbloom Low Vision Center in Philadelphia, working with patients. Now, she focuses on the importance of eye health in our communities. 

“I think most people don’t go to the eye doctor nearly enough or soon enough, so just know you’re supposed to have your eyes checked every year,” Totten said. 

Totten continues to help the low vision community with a recent partnership between Wise Eyes Family Eye Care and IFB Solutions, based in Winston-Salem. Nonprofit eyewear store, Twenty200, features eyewear made by blind and visually impaired workers of IFB Solutions.

Totten typically sends her patients right next door to buy their glasses. Buying these glasses in turn supports the low vision community and creates jobs. 

“The way to provide more jobs is to have more demand for glasses, so it was kind of a natural partnership,” Totten said. 

Employees cut the lenses, etch prescriptions and shape lenses for their frames, all using adaptive machinery for workers with low vision.

IFB Solutions is the largest employer in the nation for the low vision community. Nearly 70% of people who are blind or visually impaired in the United States are unemployed, according to IFB Solutions. Partnerships like Totten’s will help cut down on those numbers. 

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