World Sight Day (WSD) is an international day of awareness, held annually on the second Thursday of October to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness and visual impairment. This year World Sight Day falls on 11 October 2018. WSD is co-ordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
World Sight Day is arguably the most important advocacy and communications time on the eye health calendar. It offers an ideal opportunity for eye care professionals to encourage their patients, family or friends to engage in dialogue and remind those nearest and dearest to us the importance of a having regular comprehensive eye exams, particularly for those who seldom get an eye exam, or other people that are otherwise at risk, such as people with diabetes or other relatable conditions.
We are living in a time when we have the data and evidence to understand the potential dangers involved if we do not encourage people to have regular exams and the problems that can result if we, as a group do not. We also have projections into the future–and we know things can go bad, if we don’t act now. World Sight Day is the focal Advocacy and PR event for IAPB and its members and partners each year, highlighting the fact that more than 75% of all blindness and MSVI is avoidable. WSD provides a platform for organizations to encourage governments, corporations, institutions, and individuals to actively support global blindness prevention efforts. 
This year, let us draw attention to eye care issues so that everyone, everywhere has access to good eye health. What’s the first thing you can do? Plan for an eye examination. Look around in your family, especially for those who are vulnerable: young, school-going children, the elderly, those with diabetes.
EYEcenter Optometric thanks the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness for some of the content of this post as seen at https://www.iapb.org/advocacy/world-sight-day/world-sight-day-2018/.
