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The Optical Laboratories Association (OLA) is an international business association founded in 1894 to serve the needs of the optical laboratory industry. OLA’s current members include 341 companies, representing 505 wholesale and retail laboratories in the U.S., Canada, and 14 other countries. OLA produces a variety of education and training materials for optical laboratories and eyecare professionals, including Perspective o­n Lenses, Lens Menu, Progressive Identifier, and the OLA Lens Center, the Indispensable Dispensing GUIDE, the bi-monthly magazine CLEARVisions, and MemberNewsbulletins o­n legal and technical topics for optical laboratories. The association sponsors an international exposition and conference - "THE OLA" - the world’s largest show exclusively for optical laboratories.

The OLA sponsors and administers the ANSI Z80 Committee and serves as the ANSI Z80 Secretariat. The ANSI Z80 Committee is an ANSI accredited standards development committee responsible for writing all ANSI Z80 Standards for Ophthalmic Optics. The Z80 Committee is composed of 20 Member Organizations from the ophthalmic professions, manufacturing, distribution and governmental sectors who implement the ANSI prescribed consensus procedures for standards development.

Optifacts supports VCA communication standard for communicating with lab equipment.

The Data Communication Standard task force began work in 1996 making this VCA's oldest standards group. This standard is the result of a desire shared by manufacturers of optical laboratory equipment and the producers of software used in optical laboratories to simplify the interconnection of their products and reduce installation difficulties.

The standard provides a system for transmitting data between lens processing equipment and optical laboratory computers. Regular revisions of the standard have been developed over the years to keep pace with advancing technologies.

Because the standard was created when this association was know as the OMA, the standard is often referred to as the OMA Protocol. It has been adopted by both ANSI and ISO as both a national and international standard.