“In my first role as a newly qualified orthoptist, the hospital where I worked decided to start a vision screening service to test all three-year-olds. We questioned whether the available vision tests would be suitable, particularly for our diverse population and the speed of testing required for screening, which set me thinking.
My thought was to design a picture test based on Snellen science, which resulted in many evenings and weekends devoted to drawing multiple size pictures to exact sizes. Three years later I had researched and published the results and was persuaded by colleagues to take the final step and invest in getting it printed and sold.
I think that taking this step in 1984 made me realise how few orthoptic products were made specifically for testing children, so I decided to make products that I wanted for my orthoptic work, such as colourful fixation sticks, reward stickers, occluding glasses and fabric patches.”
Hazel Kay, Kay Pictures
Kay Pictures was founded in 1984 by orthoptist Hazel Kay when she researched and developed the Kay Picture Test vision testing system to enable earlier visual acuity measurements of very young children and those with learning disabilities.