World Sight Day (WSD) is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. World Sight Day 2015 is on 8 October 2015.Atlanta Center for the Visually Impaired serves some 5000 Georgians a year! They believe "Every person with vision loss should be able to live with independence and dignity." CVI is a fully accredited private facility providing rehabilitation services for the blind and visually impaired."
from International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
- Approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness
- Of these, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment
- 90% of blind people live in low-income countries
- Yet 80% of visual impairment is avoidable - i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable
- Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care
- The number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly reduced in the past 20 years
- An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired
- About 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world's population
- Increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.
