(From left) The Flournoy family: Kristin, Grayson and Ron Jr. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Becoming a licensed driver is one of the most pivotal moments in a young person’s life, bringing a newfound sense of independence and signifying a step toward adulthood. For Midlothian teen Grayson Flournoy, 17, it once seemed like this moment might never come.
Grayson has albinism, an inherited genetic condition that reduces the amount of melanin pigment formed in the hair, skin and eyes. Because melanin plays an integral role in the development and function of the eyes, people with albinism often have vision problems that can’t be corrected with traditional eyeglasses. Grayson experiences blurry vision, rapid back-and-forth eye movement (nystagmus), and sensitivity to bright lights and glare (photophobia).
Because of his vision issues, Grayson and his doctors were unsure whether he’d be able to pass the vision test needed to get a driver’s license. “I was pretty disappointed,” Grayson says. “I didn’t want to believe it. I’ve always been interested in cars and the aspect of driving.”
According to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, 20/40 or better vision in one or both eyes is needed for an unrestricted driver’s license, while 20/70 or better vision is required for a restricted daylight-only driver’s license. Grayson’s vision was 20/100.
“The doctors we saw when he was 12 didn’t think he’d ever be able to drive. They said they didn’t have the expertise that he needed,” says Kristin Flournoy, Grayson’s mother. “It was just a matter of trying to find a low-vision doctor in the area that we could get started with.”
The search led the family to the MEDRVA Low Vision Center, a low-vision rehabilitation center that offers evaluations and therapeutic rehabilitation to help vision-impaired individuals resume their daily activities, regain their independence and improve their quality of life. In 2020, when he was 13 years old, Grayson began working with MEDRVA optometrist Dr. Jamie Pucci after aging out of pediatric care at Virginia Eye Institute.
“[Low-vision care] is very goal oriented,” Pucci says. “Some people want to be able to read the newspaper, other people want to see more at the theater. In Grayson’s case, he wanted to drive. He would use whatever specialized device or tool that it took.”
After establishing this goal with Grayson, Pucci began trying different options to assist with his vision — including trial glasses, hand-held monocular telescopes and prosthetic contact lenses — before deciding that a bioptic telescope was the most effective because it helped Grayson achieve 20/30 vision.
“In Virginia, some people who otherwise would not be able to drive because of their vision can get their driver’s license and drive safely with bioptics or bioptic telescopes,” Pucci says. “Bioptics are small telescopes that are mounted either on a pair of glasses or on a headband just slightly above the line of sight.”
Unfortunately, the usual methods of mounting the bioptic didn’t work for Grayson because his nystagmus gets worse when he looks up. Pucci found that Grayson’s nystagmus minimized when he looked slightly to the left or turned his head to the right, so they’d need to find a bioptic that would work with these head positions to maximize his vision.
“I worked with several vendors to find out if any of them could mount the telescope close enough to his nose and at the correct angle to help him see, but none of them could get the telescope in the position Grayson needed. It was so frustrating,” Pucci says.
Grayson holds the bioptic telescope that helps him drive, mounted to the headband mount created by his grandfather Ron Flournoy Sr., pictured at top right. (Photos by Jay Paul, courtesy Flournoy family)
It seemed they had exhausted all their options, but Grayson, determined to drive, asked his grandfather Ron Flournoy Sr., an expert machinist, for help. “When Grayson approached me, I did some research of what we could mount [the bioptic] to. We took [a head harness] from a welder’s helmet, and what I did was build a light-duty aluminum frame. It’s able to move left, right, forward, backward, so it [gave] Dr. Pucci the ability to mount the device,” Ron says.
The Flournoys presented this invention to Pucci. She determined that with the headband mount at the correct angle, Grayson’s vision was 20/25. “Going from 20/100 to 20/25 is an incredible improvement,” Pucci says. “He practiced with the device for a couple months, and then I submitted paperwork to DMV so that he could be tested with the bioptic telescope.”
Photo by Jay Paul
Grayson received his learner’s permit in the summer of 2023 and, after driving for many hours with his parents, got his unrestricted driver’s license earlier this year with the assistance of the headband mount created by his grandfather.
“I feel really independent, and it means a lot to me because [driving] was something I was always thinking about when I was young,” Grayson says.
Ron has created additional versions of the headband mount for Pucci to use in her practice to help other patients with similar vision needs.
“I think [the mount] makes bioptic driving available to a group of people who did not see well with a traditional bioptic. It opens the door to independence to more people, which is really awesome,” Pucci says. “It might not be that there are hundreds of people, but for the few people out there who something like this could help, it’s really a game changer.”
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