Spanish Version of Transitions Eyeglass Guide Now Available
Encourages Hispanic Americans to Explore
Sight-Enhancing Vision Wear Options
PINELLAS PARK, Fla., Oct. 23, 2007 – Adding to its growing arsenal of resources for Spanish-speaking consumers to learn more about sight-enhancing vision care and vision wear options, Transitions Optical, Inc. is now offering a Spanish version of its Eyeglass Guide.

This interactive tool details the wide range of eyewear choices available, providing valuable education prior to the eyecare appointment, and helping to prompt dialogue between the Spanish-speaking consumer and eyecare professional. This is an important step considering that Hispanic Americans have higher rates of visual impairment and exhibit a higher incidence of certain debilitating eye-related diseases, making knowledge of protective vision wear options – like UV protection – even more important.

Available as a magazine insert – and as a Web site at www.AprendaSobreanteojos.com – the guide reviews four steps for consumers to consider before buying their next pair of glasses:

Look at lenses: This section uses a series of questions to help patients explore their visual needs, positioning lenses as the first concern when choosing eyewear.

Focus on frames: Advice on frame selection includes considerations such as frame size and material, as well as fashion tips.

Think Transitions: Information on the benefits of Transitions® lenses helps consumers understand how photochromics can enhance and protect vision.

Mull over multiple pairs: This final section encourages consumers to consider owning more than one pair of glasses to help ensure the best possible vision for every activity.

The Eyeglass Guide also urges Spanish-speaking patients to seek further advice from their eyecare professional by providing a checklist of topics to bring to their appointment. The online version even features a five-minute quiz that offers a “virtual” eyeglass recommendation.

“Choosing eyewear can be an overwhelming process for everyone, and a language barrier only makes it more frustrating for Spanish-speaking consumers to communicate their eyecare interests and concerns to their eyecare professional,” said Martha Rivera, Hispanic market segment manager, Transitions. “The Eyeglass Guide helps these patients explore their options beforehand – and now in whatever language they feel most comfortable – so that they are more likely to proactively discuss healthy sight options during the eyecare appointment and when choosing eyewear in the dispensary.”

To spread the message of the national campaign into the dispensary, eyecare professionals can order Spanish versions of in-office tools that complement the Eyeglass Guide program. These include an in-office poster that can be used to remind patients of the “four things to know before you buy your next pair of eyeglasses.” Additionally, eyecare professionals can feature a counter card display that includes take-away copies of the Eyeglass Guide. These mini versions of the guide can be displayed in a waiting room or given to patients to complete when they sign in. Finally, eyecare professionals with a Web presence can provide patients with a link to the Eyeglass Guide Web site.

Hispanic Outreach Campaign
The Spanish version of the Eyeglass Guide complements numerous Hispanic outreach tools available from Transitions including the bilingual pocket card, which provides a list of common choices in lenses, frames and additional pairs – both in English and Spanish – so that dispensers and patients who speak different languages can overcome communication barriers by using it as a translation tool. The bilingual pocket card also directs consumers to www.EyeglassGuide.com or www.AprendaSobreanteojos.com for more information.

Additional resources include the newly released Spanish version of the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund Web site – designed to help eyecare professionals better communicate with their Hispanic patients and to encourage these patients to take steps that will protect their healthy sight today and in the future. Eyecare professionals can access a variety of customizable marketing tools in Spanish through the Transitions Online Marketing (TOM) tool, found at www.TransitionsTOM.com. Additionally, eyecare professionals can take advantage of a new a bilingual education course, Dispensing to Your Hispanic Patients, and sign up for the new Hispanic roundtable consensus paper, Factors Impacting the Vision Care and Vision Wear of Culturally Diverse Groups: Focus on Hispanics. For the latest tools, news and information related to reaching Hispanic patients, eyecare professionals can sign up for Healthy InSights Informativo, a quarterly e-mail newsletter.