As a lesser known profession in the public sphere, the 2025 Orthoptics Awareness Week (2-6 June) campaign is aiming to raise the profile of orthoptists and their essential role in the Australian eye health ecosystem, saving vision and even lives.
By A/Prof Amanda French
Orthoptists have a specialised and unique skillset in high demand within the eye health sector. Orthoptists are particularly sought after for their expertise in paediatrics, ocular motility, visual rehabilitation and ophthalmics, and the important role they play in enhancing access to best practice, evidence-based care.
Our profession is uniquely positioned to make a significant positive impact on patient outcomes and experiences through therapeutic management, rehabilitation and patient education. Whether this be delivering paediatric vision screening, working with clients with vision impairment, managing severe dry eye or prescribing orthoptic training, providing person-centred care is an inherent part of what it means to be an orthoptist and an allied health professional.
However, orthoptists also have broad transferable skills in patient advocacy, education and training, project management and research that can be applied to diverse roles across the healthcare sector. As a result, they are frequently valued beyond their clinical role in leadership, research, education and advocacy.
This Orthoptics Awareness Week taking place 2-6 June 2025, Orthoptics Australia is celebrating the campaign under the theme: ‘I am an Orthoptist’. We’re aiming to increase public and professional awareness of orthoptics and celebrate the amazing positive impact they make to eye health within clinical roles and the many other areas to which orthoptists apply their skills.
The collection of articles included in this feature, in celebration of Orthoptics Awareness Week, highlight the way that orthoptists have made a difference to their patients and the broader community through utilising their orthoptic skills in a diverse range of roles and settings.
– Dr Sandra Staffieri AO reflects on her long and varied career in paediatric orthoptics that has varied from being chief orthoptist at The Royal Children’s Hospital to building her role as retinoblastoma care co-ordinator and now as the manager for the hospital’s Retinoblastoma Service. Sandra has utilised her orthoptic expertise and passion for research and patient advocacy to increase awareness and screening for retinoblastoma, making a significant difference to the lives of many through her important work.
– Ms Madeleine Scavone, as a clinical orthoptist working with children, identified a need for innovative and accessible children’s vision care products. She describes what prompted her to turn her expertise as an orthoptist, medical device sales experience and passion for improving children’s eye health into founding her successful business, Speckles. She has continued to dedicate her efforts to increasing awareness of the importance of paediatric vision screening and management of amblyopia through her platform.
These articles highlight the value orthoptists make to improving eye health care through their clinical work and beyond.
As a profession that is less well-known in the public sphere, it is essential that we actively promote the value of orthoptics and increase awareness and recognition of our important work and expertise.
Orthoptics Australia invites all within the eyecare and health care sector to celebrate Orthoptics Awareness Week this June and encourages orthoptists to proudly expound “I am an orthoptist” whenever they have the opportunity.
The rewards are aplenty for this determined orthoptist
By Dr Sandra Staffieri
Saving children’s lives isn’t something that immediately springs to mind when pursuing an orthoptics career – but this is where my four-decade journey has led me.
To say it’s been rewarding and fulfilling is an understatement, but doing such work comes with some poignant, delicate moments.
Having completed my training in 1984, I found myself instantly working in the paediatric ophthalmology space from day one – and I would not have wanted it any other way. From volunteering for Lions Amblyopia Screening, to being chief orthoptist for almost 10 years at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), my career has always been varied and interesting.
There is nothing more rewarding than completing an orthoptic assessment on a terrified child or consoling a parent when they receive bad news – whether their child needs glasses and an eye patch, or their child needs an eye removed to control retinoblastoma.
I count myself as privileged to have been drawn into the paediatric oncology space, developing the role of retinoblastoma care co-ordinator more than 30 years ago. Now as the manager of the RCH’s Retinoblastoma Service I have been able to lead the appointment of a retinoblastoma care co-ordinator in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, as well as co-founding the Retinoblastoma – ANZ Alliance.
And from paediatric ophthalmology I also find myself in the village of paediatric oncology and global health.
Recently I returned from a week in Port Moresby with a delegation of paediatric oncologists, nurses, pharmacist and researchers from the International Society for Paediatric Oncology (Oceania), causing me to reflect more on my career as an orthoptist.
I never imagined that what I do could make such a difference. Advocating for, and providing education about, procedural comfort was an immediate impact on the life of a child on this visit. Moreover, developing and implementing awareness and screening for early signs of retinoblastoma might just save a child’s life in a country where delayed diagnosis for retinoblastoma is common, and survival is not.
With all the skills I learned and developed as an orthoptist all those years ago, I never thought saving a life might be one of them. There is more to orthoptics than meets the eye.
Taking orthoptics to the silver screen … and the mainstream
By Madeleine Scavone
When I first became an orthoptist, I knew I wanted to make a difference. But I could never have imagined just how far this path would take me – not just working directly with patients, but creating new opportunities for children around the world to see more clearly and confidently.
My background in orthoptics gave me a foundation in health science, precision, and deep care. It also opened my eyes to the emotional side of vision and how much a child’s confidence, learning, and life experiences are tied to how they see and engage with the world.
This insight became the driving force behind Speckles, the company I founded to create empowering, child-friendly vision care solutions. These include medical eye patches, sunglasses, and educational resources designed to support parents and children through every step of their vision journey.
Developed through the lens of an orthoptist – with children’s needs, emotions, and experiences at the centre – Speckles is built on the belief that early awareness and education are just as important as the products themselves. Through our partnership with the global charity Sightsavers, we are proud to give back and help provide vital vision care to children in communities where it is needed most.
In 2024, a pivotal moment arrived when we started our collaboration with The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand. In June 2025, we are launching a collaboration connected to the new Disney/Pixar movie Elio, which features a main character who wears an eye patch.
It’s a rare and powerful opportunity to bring children’s vision care into the mainstream, creating positive visibility, reducing stigma, and starting new conversations about the importance of early eye health.
This moment not only impacts the families and children we serve, but has the potential to uplift the broader orthoptics community by increasing awareness of amblyopia and the importance of early eye tests in children.
Orthoptics taught me that the greatest impact often begins with the smallest moments: one child, one parent, one early eye test. It’s this ripple effect – helping a child today to live more fully tomorrow – that inspired me to think bigger, innovate, and advocate beyond the traditional clinical setting.
Orthoptics is a career full of possibility: clinical expertise, leadership, creativity, advocacy, and innovation. To future orthoptists, your skills and compassion will open more doors than you can imagine.
I am proud to say, “I am an orthoptist.” And I am proud to show the world just how far the vision and heart of an orthoptist can reach.
More reading
Orthoptists – at the forefront of holistic low vision care
Orthoptics Awareness Week 2024: Unleashing the potential of orthoptists
Vision Australia and Lions Outback Vision team up in Broome
