When I was in the application process, many students were struggling to find shadowing opportunities as COVID was hitting really hard last summer, and admissions boards from multiple schools that I had heard speak (at different webinars and such) said that if you can't get or don't have any shadowing experience, try to arrange a Zoom of some type with an optometrist, or even multiple if you can, to get questions answered and to maybe even have them give a rundown of their typical day. It is extremely different from getting to shadow in person, but it is better than nothing, and admissions committees at optometry schools are very understanding about how COVID has affected everything! So if you can't get in anywhere in person I would definitely suggest reaching out to an optometrist to see if you can at least video chat. I would still at least attempt to ask doctors to shadow and then if they all say no you can try to arrange a virtual meeting. Keep working at it and everything will work out 🙂 if you are still super concerned with experience by the time apps get closer, I would recommend reaching out to the schools' admissions directly! They love to hear from prospective students and to help as much as they can!