SCENE + HEARD: Daily Post Blindness and Vision Impairment on World Sight Day By Staff Thursday, October 11, 2018 12:07 PM Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018 was World Sight Day, when ECPs, optometric companies and sight-related organizations around the world turned out to support the 1.2 billion people worldwide who are in need of vision care. The World Health Organization pointed out that approximately 80% of vision impairment globally is avoidable. Here are some other vision care facts from the WHO.• Globally, it is estimated that approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment. • With regards to distance vision, 188.5 million people have mild vision impairment, 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment, and 36 million people are blind. • With regards to near vision, 826 million people live with a near vision impairment. • Globally, the leading causes of vision impairment are uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts.• The majority of people with vision impairment are over the age of 50 years. Click here to read the full story.