ABSTRACT
Blindness is an impairment that hampers the ability to bene„t from most of those things that seeing allows. The World Health Organization estimates that globally there are about 314 million people who are visually impaired, of whom 45 million are blind. Extensive efforts are made to eliminate blindness by direct medical attention and by developing tools that assist the blind to live an independent, normal life as much as possible. On the medical side of these efforts, a global initiative known as “Vision 2020: The Right to Sight” was established as a partnership between the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. This initiative was launched in 1999 with the goals of eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020 and preventing the projected doubling of avoidable visual impairment between 1990 and 2020. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to integrate a sustainable, comprehensive, high-quality, equitable eye care system into strengthened national healthcare systems (Dixon, 2000).
