{"id":11478,"date":"2025-09-30T11:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/?p=11478"},"modified":"2025-10-06T12:38:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:38:01","slug":"october-is-world-blindness-awareness-month-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2025\/09\/october-is-world-blindness-awareness-month-2\/","title":{"rendered":"October Is World Blindness Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every October, World Blindness Awareness Month brings attention to the blind and visually impaired community and the realities of living without sight. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), \u201ceveryone, if they live long enough, will experience at least one eye disease or disorder in their lifetime.&#8221; Despite this reality, healthy behaviors established early in life can help the majority of the general population prevent complete loss of vision over the course of one&#8217;s lifetime. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-8450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Oct-World-Blindness-Awareness-Month-e1696265323483-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"275\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Two globally recognized blindness outreach organizations &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/nfb.org\/\">The National Federation of the Blind<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iapb.org\/\">The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness<\/a> &#8212; offer multiple helpful resources to individuals and their families who are affected directly or indirectly by the daily challenges of severe visual impairment and total blindness.<\/p>\n<p>The proof is in the numbers. An estimated 2.2 billion people around the globe suffer from some form of visual impairment or blindness \u2013 including those who simply wear corrective lenses.\u00a0 Read the American Association of Ophthalmology (AAO)\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aao.org\/eye-health\/tips-prevention\/20-ways-aging-changes-your-eyes\"><strong>21 Ways Aging Changes Your Eyes<\/strong><\/a> to learn more on changes in the eyes that come with age that lead to worsening eyesight as individuals grow older.<\/p>\n<p>By age 40, all asymptomatic adults should have a first-time comprehensive eye exam. Call UNC Kittner Eye Center at <strong>984-974-2020<\/strong> today to schedule your comprehensive eye exam with a UNC Ophthalmology ophthalmologist or optometrist.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4 id=\"World_Blindness_Awareness_Month__BlindnessAwarenessMonth\" class=\"uabb-toc-text\" style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>#BlindnessAwarenessMonth<\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every October, World Blindness Awareness Month brings attention to the blind and visually impaired community and the realities of living without sight. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), \u201ceveryone, if they live long enough, will experience at least one eye disease or disorder in their lifetime.&#8221; Despite this reality, healthy behaviors established early in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2025\/09\/october-is-world-blindness-awareness-month-2\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about October Is World Blindness Awareness Month\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17488,"featured_media":8450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>October Is World Blindness Awareness Month | Department of Ophthalmology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2025\/09\/october-is-world-blindness-awareness-month-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"October Is World Blindness Awareness Month | Department of Ophthalmology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every October, World Blindness Awareness Month brings attention to the blind and visually impaired community and the realities of living without sight. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), \u201ceveryone, if they live long enough, will experience at least one eye disease or disorder in their lifetime.&#8221; Despite this reality, healthy behaviors established early in &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2025\/09\/october-is-world-blindness-awareness-month-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Ophthalmology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-30T15:17:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-06T16:38:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Oct-World-Blindness-Awareness-Month-e1759768462549.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta 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