WORLD SIGHT DAY
Today is the day! It’s World Sight Day, which is an annual day to bring awareness to blindness and vision impairment globally. Although we may not be faced head on with those impacted by severe visual impairments in our day-to-day lives since about half of these patients live in China and India, it’s important to know that many in the world do face significant challenges of being visually impaired. In fact, there are 217 million people with moderate or severe visual impairments in the world. Can you believe that?! And what is even crazier is that over 75% of those cases are actually totally avoidable by modern medicine or glasses. We at Spectacle try to do our part to decrease the number of those living with visual impairments, and here’s how you can help to!
Get an annual eye exam: It all starts there. Be sure to get your annual eye exam and encourage others to do the same. You never know who hasn’t had their eyes checked recently and just might need that encouragement to do so. Simply telling your friends and family to get your eyes checked and spreading the word can go a long way to decrease that number and prevent vision loss since we know that 3 out of 4 patients with visual impairments have conditions that could have been prevented in the first place.
Ask about your Family’s Ocular History: The top causes of blindness are cataracts, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration. All of these diseases have a genetic predisposition, and all of them are controllable. Be sure to ask your family members if they have been diagnosed with any of these conditions. If so, tell your doctor at your next eye exam so you can be monitored closely to avoid getting to the point of vision loss. After knowing your family’s ocular history, your yearly exams will be the best preventative measure you can take!
3. Donate your glasses: At Spectacle, we have a donation basket for any used glasses that are not serving you anymore. We partner with various organizations who then help to get these glasses into the hands of someone who may need them in other parts of the world. Eighty-nine percent of those with visual impairments live in low to middle income countries and often times the poorest areas of those countries. Without access to eyeglasses, it’s hard for them to get the preventative care they need.
We hope that you’ll check your family history before you get your annual eye exam and encourage others to do the same. We strive to do our part to help in any way we can, and we truly appreciate our patients who so graciously donate their glasses to our cause as well. Stop in anytime, no appointment needed, to donate your glasses to someone in need!
