Optometry students at UAB provide numerous screenings and comprehensive eye exams at sites across Alabama and the region through community outreach. Students, faculty and residents collectively examine nearly 25,000 patients per year.

Community Eye Care

Community Eye Care (CEC), the mobile community outreach component of UAB Eye Care, provides complete eye exams for lower-income or underinsured patients in clinics throughout Birmingham, Alabama, and rural areas of the state—particularly in the Black Belt. Students participate in numerous eye exams and vision screenings at area schools, daycare centers, senior citizen centers, community events and local shelters.

CEC operates a clinic within the Jefferson County Department of Health’s Western Health Center in Midfield, Alabama. Optometry students and faculty also make weekly trips to the UAB School of Nursing’s Providing Access to Healthcare (PATH) Clinic, where they provide eye care to patients with poorly controlled diabetes who do not have insurance.

CEC also provides care at The Foundry in Bessemer, Alabama, the Lovelady Center in East Lake in Birmingham and United Ability's Adult Day Program at LincPoint in Homewood, Alabama.

Through the annual Gift of Sight event held each December, students join faculty and staff in providing hundreds of residents from Birmingham shelters with a free eye examination and glasses.

In addition to clinical education through Community Eye Care, students at the UAB School of Optometry provide care for communities locally, within the US and across the world through student organizations.