College of Opticians of Ontario

TRANSPARENCY
ACCOUNTABILITY
INTEGRITY
EFFICIENCY
OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF
AMERICA
Branding Opticians in the U.S.
September 16, 2010
Chris Allen
Mark Bennett
Presentation Overview
 Starting at the Beginning
 Think Vision Care
 Opticians in the United States
 Branding the Profession/Public
Awareness
Opticians
in the
United States
State Level Work
State With Licensure/Registration
 Alaska
 New Jersey
 Arizona
 New York
 Arkansas
 North Carolina
 California
 Ohio
 Connecticut
 Rhode Island
 Florida
 South Carolina
 Georgia
 Tennessee
 Hawaii
 Texas
 Kentucky
 Vermont
 Massachusetts
 Virginia
 Nevada
 Washington
 New Hampshire
States Without Licensure
 Alabama
 Missouri
 Colorado
 Montana
 Delaware
 Nebraska
 Idaho
 New Mexico
 Illinois
 North Dakota
 Indiana
 Oklahoma
 Iowa
 Oregon
 Kansas
 Pennsylvania
 Louisiana
 South Dakota
 Maine
 Utah
 Maryland
 West Virginia
 Michigan
 Wisconsin
 Minnesota
 Wyoming
 Mississippi
Scope of Practice
The practice of opticianry is the provision, fitting and
adjustment of vision devices, contact lenses or spectacles.
Licensure/Registration Requirements
Opticianry Licensure Requirements:
 Mandatory
 Varies by state
 ABO/NCLE exam and practical exams used in a number of
states
 Continuing education requirements vary from four hours a
year to 14 hours a year.
Certification Requirements
Opticianry Certification Requirements:
 Voluntary
 Any optician in any state may become certified
 Continuing education requirements are:



12 hours every three years for an ABO certificate holder
18 hours every three years for an NCLE certificate holder
and
9 ABO/12 NCLE hours every three years for dual certificate
holders
Regulated Health Professions by State
 Opticians are just one of many
health care professions
regulated by state boards
NATIONAL
COLLABORATION
Opticians Association of America
Established in 1926 as the Guild of Prescription
Opticians, the Opticians Association of America (OAA) is
the only national organization representing opticianry's
business, professional, educational, legislative and
regulatory interests.
 Advocacy for Opticians
 Educate Opticians
 Advancement of the profession
 Visibility of the profession
 Mentor new Opticians
 Encourage involvement in the profession
National Committee of State Opticianry
Regulatory Boards
Group that includes staff and board members of
state regulatory boards of opticianry
 Public safety
 Consumer protection
 Access
 Scope of Practice
 Competence
 Public awareness
American Board of Opticianry
The American Board of Opticianry (ABO) is a national,
non-profit organization which administers voluntary
certification examinations for opticians dispensing
spectacles. Its purpose is to identify qualified eyewear
providers by examination, urge growth of optical skills
with continuing education, and approve continuing
education programs. The ABO program is accredited by
the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA)
as having met its standards for certifying agencies.
National Contact Lens Examiners
The National Contact Lens Examiners (NCLE) is a
national, non-profit organization which administers
voluntary certification examinations for dispensing
opticians and contact lens technicians. The purpose is to
identify qualified eyewear providers by examination, urge
growth of optical skills with continuing education, and
approve continuing education programs. The NCLE
programs is accredited by the National Commission for
Certifying Agencies (NCCA) as having met its standards
for certifying agencies.
Contact Lens Society of America
The objective of the CLSA is to promote education,
mutual understanding and cooperation among all
persons interested in contact lens fitting.
National Academy of Opticianry
The National Academy of Opticianry (The Academy) is
an international organization dedicated solely to
education and training for all opticians
Commission on Opticianry
Accreditation (COA)
The mission of the Commission on Opticianry Accreditation is to
foster excellence in opticianry education by setting standards,
assessing educational effectiveness, and identifying those
academic programs that meet the standards, in order to aid
programs to produce competent graduates who will provide
professional services to the public.
Scope of accreditation: COA accredits two-year Opticianry degree
programs and one-year ophthalmic laboratory technology
certificate programs in the United States and Canada that are
sponsored by post-secondary institutions accredited by agencies
recognized by the Department of Education or CHEA.
National Federation of Opticianry
Schools (NFOS)
The National Federation of Opticianry Schools (NFOS) is the
national organization dedicated to the promotion of formal
opticianry education offered by accredited educational institutions.
Formal education is fundamental to the credibility of the Optician
as a vision care professional.
The NFOS is a nonprofit organization whose members represent
formal Opticianry education in the United States and Canada. One
of cornerstone ideals of the NFOS is the sharing of knowledge, to
that end we have developed this website for the dissemination of
information for the optical community.
COMMON ISSUES ACROSS THE NATION
 Internet Sales – eyeglasses and contact lenses
 Education
 Professional Development
 Public Awareness
 Recognition from Other Vision Care Providers
 Vision Screening
WORKING TOGETHER
 Meet and discuss issues facing the profession
 Share best practices
 Work together on common goals
 Respect different mandates and points of view
 Agree to disagree
 Provide a clear voice for Opticianry to the public,
government, other vision care providers
 Be strategic as we move forward
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
 Optical-related issues
 Health issues
 Regulatory issues
State, National, North America
BRANDING AND PUBLIC
AWARENESS
PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
Why brand?
 Builds awareness
 Builds reputation
 Clarifies what we do compared to other eye health
practitioners
 Builds trust and credibility
Working Together We’ve
Devised A Plan
Opticianry in the US Has Had No Real
Sense of Unity
Why „Licensed Optician‟?
It Has Been Found That The Average Person
Today Identifies The Process of Licensing To
Mean:
•A Certificate Hangs On The Wall
•A Level Of Knowledge Acquired
•A Standard of Performance
What We Want
Our Brand To Achieve
 Recognition that Opticians are educated, trained and




regulated eye health professionals
Inspire trust in the public
Clarify where Opticians fit on the eye health
continuum
Appeals to Opticians Themselves
Works with Opticians‟ business brand
Eye Health Continuum
•
•
Optometrists brand claims the eye
health turf:
“We know the eye inside and out”
– Their icon is a peeled orange
Eye Health Continuum
•
•
Ophthalmologists claim their
turf
: “eye health/surgery”
•
•
No one claims the space “makes you see better”
It’s what we do
BRANDING AND PUBLIC
AWARENESS
CANADA’S OPTICIANRY
BRANDING STORY
The Profession of Opticianry in Canada
 Regulated in every Province across Canada
 Opticians interpret and evaluate prescriptions from medical doctors







and optometrists.
Opticians educate and provide advice about vision, prevention and
treatment options
Ontario and Quebec dual license system eyeglasses and contact
lenses (low vision)
Rest of the provinces eye glass only or eye glass and contact lens
license
British Columbia – stand alone refraction – automated
Alberta – refraction delegated by Ophthalmology
Ontario – collaborative refraction
6000 opticians across Canada
Research trends on which Canada‟s optician
brand is based
 Trust is important to public
 Opticians feel a need for recognition
 Our profession has substance
No need to brand defensively
 The stage is ours to do things differently
Eye health brands mostly play on the eye so our brand needs to
differentiate us from the crowd
Descriptions of the profession are pedantic and academic – our
brand needs to be more friendly
So how did this factor into Canada’s
optician brand?
 A brand story was created based on the position
that “Opticians make you see better”
 Our visual identity, look and feel is based on the
brand story
The brand story
 Describes what our brand is about
 Highlights our unique strengths
 Describes the “character” of our brand
 Speaks to the heart and mind
 Something we can be proud of
 It’s on www.licensedoptician.ca
Before we explain the rest…
 Our brand story defines Opticians as “vision
architects”

We balance form (design) and function (the vision solution)
as architects do
 “Vision architects” is for internal use among
Opticians only – it will confuse the public
 It‟s the part of the brand that resonates with us,
internally
Speaks to qualified,
educated, approved.
.
Builds trust
The American Optician
represents all
Opticians and their
name here lends an
endorsement to the
brand that adds
credibility
Our name stands out
in order to raise
awareness
We have trademarked the following
• Logo
• Vision refined
• Vision Architect
• LicensedOptician
We have trademarked the following
• Logo
• Vision refined
• Vision Architect
• LicensedOptician
The Plan
2008/2009
 Begin with Canada
 Have 100 000$ invested already
 Have 200 000$ for 2009 from OCC Members
 Organizations are incorporating a communications budget
line item
Five Year Plan
 Move to the US
 Move international – already in discussions with the
Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) and the
International Opticians Association (IOA)
Where Do We Go From Here?
 Is there a need?
 Does everyone agree that opticianry branding in the
US is worth pursuing?
 Future steps
 Formation of a Task Force to Decide Strategic Direction
 Funding
 Development of Plan