AIM: To determine the perception of refractive errors (RE) and uptake of spectacle correction amongst adults with REs attending the Eye Clinic of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross sectional, descriptive study. Six hundred and fifty eight consecutive patients aged 18 years and above who have been diagnosed with refractive error for at least one month duration were interviewed using pretested, interviewer-administered questionnaires made up of both open and closed ended questions. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for IBM (version 20, SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). Chi square test and Fisher’s exact test (where expected count less than 5) were used to assess for relationship between categorical variables. RESULT: Six hundred and fifty questionnaires were analyzed. There were 441 females and 209 males. The mean age of participants was 44.48years. Although 86.6% of participants had at least secondary education, only 30% had previously heard the term ‘refractive error’ and were able to state the type of error they had. Among the attributable causes of RE were; Excessive reading (49.8%), Aging (44%), Hereditary (40%), Exposure to dust/smoke (31.4%) and Poor diet (17%). Fifty eight percent of the study participants reported moderate to severe disturbance from their eye condition while 39% expressed a fear of even going blind from the perceived visual disability. Many respondents (88.0%) believed that treatment could correct their eye problem; 71.4% of whom expected that spectacles would provide such a correction permanently. Other modalities for treatment reported by respondents included eye drops (40.5%), multivitamin tablets (38.6%), contact lens (30.5%) and yeast tablets (26.4%). Up to 37% of participants felt that the diagnosis of RE and use of prescribed spectacles have affected their lives negatively. The most reported difficulties were teasing 123(18.9%), difficulty with work/school 76(11.7%) and the general inconvenience of wearing spectacles 53 (8.3%). Uptake of prescribed spectacle was high (93.2%) with cost being the most important barrier against spectacle wear among the remaining few. Other reasons for not acquiring spectacles were ‘lack of felt need’ and ‘I don’t want glasses’. Although 93.2% of participants were using spectacles, only 88.3% and 56.3% obtained their lenses and frames respectively from UCTH, Calabar. Cost, quality of service and convenience were the major factors driving patients to seek treatment elsewhere.