Program review · Updated November 2026
The Read Without Glasses Method: What It Was, and What the One Study Found
Updated November 13, 2026 · Written by Numentio, LLC, the team behind Visionary, a different product
The Read Without Glasses Method is a home course for people whose near vision has started to need reading glasses. Optometrist Ray Gottlieb created it, and Martin Sussman's Cambridge Institute for Better Vision sold it for years, first on video and later online. Here is what the course involved, what it promised, what the one independent study measured, and where it stands now.
The short version: the course pairs a video with printed dot charts and eye-convergence exercises, sold as a few minutes a day. Its sales pages promised to reverse age-related near-vision loss. The one independent study we found tested it on eight adults with presbyopia and found no significant change in their unaided near vision, although most of them felt their vision had improved. When we checked on November 13, 2026, the seller's product page redirected to a page offering the domain for sale.
Who wrote this: we make Visionary, a different app for visual practice, so we are not neutral. Visionary has no connection to the Read Without Glasses Method, Ray Gottlieb, the Cambridge Institute for Better Vision, or the books with similar titles. Product names belong to their owners. We describe the course from its archived sales pages and the published study, linked under Sources.
What the course was
According to its 2008 sales page, the method grew out of Gottlieb's optometry practice about 25 years earlier, when a 52-year-old patient asked whether there was a way to avoid reading glasses. The same page describes Gottlieb as having been on the clinical faculty of the UC Berkeley optometry school and a professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry.
The course combined a video with printed charts of dots. You practice converging your eyes on a chart until the dots fuse and the pattern seems to stand out in 3-D, an exercise the sellers said works the eyes' near focusing. A later "Advanced" edition added five "String of Pearls" charts for converging and diverging.
The promises were large. The 2008 page's headline was "Reverse middle-aged sight", and the 2025 page called the course "a natural presbyopia reversal program".
Timeline
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Early 1980s | Gottlieb develops the technique in his practice. The 2008 sales page dates the patient's question to about 25 years earlier. |
| By 2008 | The Cambridge Institute for Better Vision sells the course on VHS or DVD for $39.95, with two eye charts and a 60-day money-back guarantee. |
| 2012 | University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers publish a small independent test of the program (below). |
| By 2016 | An "Advanced" edition is sold as a $34.95 download with five new charts. |
| 2025 | The course is sold as online access for $39.95, according to a July 2025 archive of the sales page. |
| November 13, 2026 | The product page at bettervision.com redirects to a page offering the domain for sale. We found no current official listing. |
What the one study found
In 2012, Hopkins, Pate and McGwin of the University of Alabama at Birmingham published a test of the program in Optometry and Vision Science. Eight adults aged 50 to 65, who had presbyopia but needed no glasses for distance, used the program at home. The researchers measured their unaided near vision on a reading chart (MNREAD) and their eyes' focusing response, at two visits before and two visits after.
- Unaided near vision did not change significantly (p = 0.956).
- The focusing response showed a small change at one visit (0.176 diopters) that did not last to the next, and the authors judged it not clinically significant.
- Most participants felt better anyway: 87.5% said their near vision had improved slightly to significantly.
The authors concluded that the program does not produce clinically or statistically significant changes in unaided near vision, despite the participants' favorable impressions. Eight people is a very small study, so it cannot rule out small effects, but it is the only independent measurement of this course we found. The gap between how people felt and what the chart showed is why measured outcomes matter.
Why exercises can't undo presbyopia
Presbyopia happens because the eye's lens stiffens with age and can no longer change shape enough to focus up close. No exercise makes the lens flexible again, which is why reading glasses, contact lenses and eye drops work around it rather than reversing it. Our guide to whether presbyopia can be reversed goes through the options.
Perceptual-learning research is a different approach. Small studies report that adults got better at practiced near-vision tasks while the eye's optics did not change. Those studies did not test the Read Without Glasses Method or Visionary; our research review covers them and their limits.
Books and programs with similar names
Several other products use almost the same words. They are separate from Gottlieb's course:
| Title | By | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Read Without Glasses at Any Age | Esther Joy van der Werf | A book, published by Visions of Joy in 2013 |
| Read Again Without Glasses | Leo Angart | A book, published by Crown House Publishing in 2014 |
| 28 Days to Reading Without Glasses | Lisette Scholl | A book, first published in 1998 |
| "Read Without Glasses" program | RevitalVision | The name RevitalVision uses for its own presbyopia program: computer-based training monitored remotely by an eye-care professional (its page; details in our comparison) |
We list the books so you can tell them apart; we have not reviewed them.
How Visionary differs
- It doesn't promise reading without glasses. Visionary is a wellness app for practicing visual skills. It doesn't change the eye's lens or your prescription, and it isn't a replacement for reading glasses or an eye exam.
- Different exercises. Short, adaptive tasks on iPhone and iPad: Gabor patches, letters, words and sentences at small sizes and low contrast, visual search and eye-movement practice. No printed charts.
- Untested, and we say so. Visionary has not been tested in a study, and the research that inspired it didn't test it either.
- Free to try. One free session every day, with no account needed to start.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Read Without Glasses Method still available?
We couldn't find a current official way to buy it. When we checked on November 13, 2026, the product page at bettervision.com redirected to a page offering the domain for sale. The last sales page we found, archived in July 2025, offered online access for $39.95.
Does the Read Without Glasses Method work?
The one independent study we found tested it on eight adults with presbyopia and found no significant change in their unaided near vision, although 87.5% of them felt their near vision had improved. The study was very small. Presbyopia comes from the lens stiffening with age, and exercises do not reverse that.
Who created the Read Without Glasses Method?
Optometrist Ray Gottlieb developed it, and Martin Sussman's Cambridge Institute for Better Vision produced and sold it.
Is there a PDF of the Read Without Glasses Method charts?
The charts were part of the paid course. Copies on document-sharing sites don't come from the publisher, and we don't link to them.
Is RevitalVision's "Read Without Glasses" program the same thing?
No. RevitalVision uses that name for its own computer-based presbyopia program, monitored remotely by an eye-care professional. It is a different product from a different company.
Will Visionary let me read without glasses?
No. Visionary is a wellness app for practicing visual skills. It does not change the eye's lens or your prescription, and it is not a replacement for reading glasses or an eye exam.
Sources
- Sales page, 2008 (archived): bettervision.com
- "Advanced" edition, 2016 (archived): bettervision.com
- Sales page, July 2025 (archived): bettervision.com
- Hopkins KB, Pate CB, McGwin G Jr. Objective measures of the effects of the "Read Without Glasses Method". Optometry and Vision Science 2012;89(8):1203–10. PubMed
- Book records on Open Library: van der Werf, Angart, Scholl
- RevitalVision's presbyopia program: revitalvision.com, checked November 13, 2026
Keep reading
Vision training programs that disappeared
GlassesOff, UltimEyes, the See Clearly Method and more.
Can you reverse presbyopia?
What changes in the eye, and what the options are.
Best eye training apps compared
Visionary, RevitalVision, CureSee, AmblyoPlay, and more.
Gabor patches and presbyopia: the research
What the studies tested, and their limits.