CIBA Vision - Experience the vision impairment

A global eye health leader, CIBA VISION® is encouraging people to have their eyes examined during the month of October, in celebration of World Sight Day (WSD). It is celebrated annually on the second Thursday in October and this year it falls on October 14. World Sight Day is the main advocacy event for "VISION 2020: The Right to Sight," a global effort to raise public awareness about blindness and vision impairment as well as to educate individuals about healthy vision.

World Sight Day (WSD) is an official day of awareness on the World Health Organization (WHO) calendar, and is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). It provides a platform for organizations worldwide to encourage governments, corporations, institutions and individuals to actively support global blindness prevention efforts.

More than 800 million people worldwide are blind, have significant vision impairment or have near vision sight loss. Nearly three-quarters of vision impairment issues can be prevented or treatedii, and 80 percent of blindness is avoidable. With regular eye exams, glasses or contact lenses, these problems are easily preventable and treatable.

To generate an awareness and better appreciation of sight, CIBA VISION in Malaysia has created an educational microsite to facilitate an experience of seeing the world through the sight of someone who is visually impaired. It can provide the general public with an understanding of the causes of blindness and the realisation to take the action in preventing them.

“CIBA VISION supports the World Sight Day mission to raise consumer awareness about the importance of healthy vision,” said Avinash Potnis, CEO of Novartis Corporation (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. 

The microsite supplies a tool (an imagery filter) that allows users to see things through the different types of avoidable blindness. Users will be able to download their own photos and videos that will goes through the process of filtering. These images will be featured as they might be viewed through the eyes of an individual with blindness such as cataract, glaucoma and astigmatism.

By doing so, the consumers can view the effects of these conditions, along with the impact of a progressively worsening visual impairment at www.worldsightday.com.my. Further information on World Sight Day and avoidable blindness are also available on the website.

The experience

• Connecting to their Facebook accounts allows visitors to choose photos from their Facebook photo albums.
• Visitor can then choose a type of avoidable blindness “experience” on their photos.
• This gives visitors a chance to live through the eyes of people with avoidable blindness.
• Alternatively, visitors can experience avoidable blindness while viewing Youtube videos.

Share

• Each completed experience will be shared on the visitor’s Facebook wall.
• CIBA VISION will then contribute RM1 to the charity fund.
• CIBA VISION aims to contribute up to RM10,000.

As part of its educational efforts around World Sight Day, CIBA VISION is partnering with IAPB by sponsoring the ‘Countdown to 2020’ event in Geneva on October 11. This year marks the halfway point in VISION 2020’s efforts to eliminate avoidable blindness and vision impairment by 2020. VISION 2020 reports that 15 million fewer people are blind compared with projections made when the initiative was launched.

“With the campaign, we hope we are able to help those who have been affected by the visual impairment, as well as create an understanding and awareness for others. Our mission is Shared Passion for Healthy Vision and Better Life. We believe by being part of World Sight Day, we are able to uphold that mission and play our role in the society,” said Mr. Potnis.