The College of Optometrists (UK) has specified guidelines for optometrists who use the colorimeter system. A society for coloured lens prescribers has been established to provide a list of eye-care practitioners with expertise in the provision of coloured lenses for the treatment of visual stress.

The disorders have been studied in several institutions, including the Psychology Department at Essex University, the former Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge University in England, and in the case of Meares-Irlen syndrome, Visual Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. the Visual Stress Unit offered non-commercial diagnostic and therapeutic services to individuals, and provided advice to the Scottish National Health Service.

In Australia, Irlen syndrome was researched by Paul Whiting at the University of Sydney. Whiting set up the first Irlen Dyslexia Centre in Australia, which operated in the Children's Centre at Sydney University for more than 15 years. Irlen syndrome was also studied in Australia by Greg Robinson (1944–2008) at the University of Newcastle. He was director of the Special Education Centre at the School of Education.

In the US, peer-reviewed literature on the topic suggests that much is unknown about the cause of these disorders, ranging from the 2011 study in a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Irlen Colored Overlays Do not Alleviate Reading Difficulties" and the 2012 study in the journal "Brain Topography", "A Functional Neuroimaging Case Study of Meares–Irlen Syndrome". The first, purely in relation to Meares-Irlen syndrome, finds that there is no evidence for one of the fundamental claims of therapeutic benefit; the second which focused primarily on Irlen syndrome found compelling evidence of unique brain function linked to the syndrome.