•	Optometry Careers, Jobs & Salaries
•	Optometry Career Specialties
•	Optometry Career Statistics
•	Choosing an Optometry School
•	Optometry School Accreditation
•	Optometry Degrees
•	Optometry School Continuing Education
•	Top 10 Qualities of a Great Optometrist
•	Optometry Organizations
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Guide to an Online Optometry Education. While Internet-based training is available, most online optometry programs are designed to provide continuing education credits to already trained doctors. Check out this article to learn more.

An Interview with Dr. Maria Higgins, Optometrist. An early interest in medicine and a true fascination for the eye led Maria Higgins to a career as an optometrist. Read all about her career in this one-on-one interview.

An Interview with Dr. Bernard Mallinger, Optometrist. After 55 years in the optometry profession, Bernard Mallinger has witnessed first hand the industry’s evolution.

The modern profession of optometry is relatively new. In fact, the first school for the study of optometry did not open until 1872 - the Illinois College of Optometry is the oldest continuously operating school for optometry in the country. Work to improve eyesight, however, has been occurring for centuries.

The first "vision aid" was invented in 1000 AD and called a reading stone. It was made of solid glass and closely resembled magnifying glasses used today. Around 1285, Italian craftsmen developed the first eyeglasses, using glass set into frames of bone, leather, or metal that balanced across the bridge of the nose.

Contact lenses are a very new development, although the idea has been around since 1508 when Leonardo da Vinci sketched his ideas for contact lenses. It wasn't until 1887, however, that the first wearable glass contact lens was developed. In 1936, plastic contact lenses were developed, and during the 1950s and 1960s, hard contact lenses became more popular. In 1971, Bausch and Lomb offered the first commercially-available soft contact lenses.

Today, eye glasses are made of plastic and metal rather than bones, and rest comfortably on ears rather than balance precariously across one's nose. Contact lenses are more popular than ever, and advances in lasers and other developments are giving people better vision than ever thought possible. More than 32,000 worked as optometrists in 2002, earning a median salary of $86,090. In 2002, there were 17 optometry schools accredited by the Accreditation Council on Optometric Education. OptometrySchools.com can help one sort through the plethora of information available about this highly skilled profession.