The Chicago Lighthouse Seeing Is Believing Program helps students to optimize their vision, increase their confidence, and improve their grades and aspirations for higher education by providing no-cost low vision exams and corrective devices to all of the students in Chicago-area public schools who require them. 

Launched in the spring of 1991 as a pilot collaboration between The Chicago Lighthouse, the Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation and the Lions of Illinois Foundation, Seeing Is Believing has benefited hundreds of children over the years. 

The rehabilitation services provided by Seeing Is Believing are free of charge to the student, the school and the parents.  Screening Days are set up through the school district Vision Coordinators.  Lighthouse optometrists travel to the screening location, bringing equipment for examinations and demonstrations of low vision devices such as magnifiers and telescopes.  The prescribed lenses and devices are sent to the Vision Coordinator, who then distributes the devices and provides instructions for use. 

In addition, the optometrist who handles each case will make personalized recommendations for each child, referring patients to vocational counseling, Braille instruction, orientation and mobility and adaptive technology resources as necessary.