World Sight Day 2022: actions

World Sight Day is now an unmissable event in the small world of optics. The alarming findings of the World Health Organization's World Vision Reports, as well as the United Nations Vision Resolution confirmed that "eye health is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals." Focus on the actions of this new edition.

World Sight Day: the #LOVEYOUREYES initiative

With always the hashtag #loveyoureyes, the IAPB (International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness) wishes to initiate actions allowing people around the world, optical professionals or not, to promote eye care.

Governments and private companies are urged to urgently implement action plans intended to stem the progression of visual defects. But also to promote eye care and eye tests. The priority is to first focus on hard-hit geographic areas. Among these key areas, Kenya, which estimates that the visual difficulties of its population leads to a loss of GDP of approximately 229 to 294 million dollars.

In India, within he population that has exceeded one billion, poor vision and lack of care are costly in the employment sector. Other associations believe that many traffic accidents could also be avoided.

IAPB wants to have 5 million eye tests carried out by Thursday 13 October. The association also organizes a photo contest based on the #Loveyoureyes campaign. Finally, a large communication campaign is taking place on social networks. The goal ? Share calls for mobilization as much as possible.

UNADEV, immersive experiences for disability awareness

The National Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired is also mobilizing for this essential day. It organizes an event dedicated to the prevention of blinding pathologies and to raising awareness of visual impairment in Bordeaux. The famous glaucoma bus will also tour the region.

In order to raise awareness among the population and public authorities, UNADEV will offer immersive experiences this year. These will make it possible to present the daily life of a visually impaired person but also to present the solutions available to them. On the program: immersion thanks to virtual reality, knowledge of visual pathologies, use of the white cane, escape game…

The technological solutions will be presented to the public, allowing them to understand that their everyday objects, watches or connected telephones, can prove to be of great help for people in situations of visual impairment.

Finally, optical professionals will also provide eye tests and glaucoma screening.

These actions show that the battle is still long to try to reverse the trend. Whether globally or locally, the needs are enormous. These landmark initiatives, presented over one day, should not make us forget that this struggle is a constant struggle.

Sources: UNADEV, IAPB