Low Vision in Colombia and the World

Abstract

Vision is one of the most important senses to man because it is the window to the outside world.An individual, in essence, is considered to be a visual being, which is why every person has theright to vision. There is not a lot of research in Colombia about low vision (defined as a significantreduction of visual function that cannot be fully corrected by eyeglasses, contact lenses, medicaltreatment or surgery, and which usually interferes with daily activities such as cooking, reading andwriting, driving a car or walking). This is one of the reasons why there is so much ignorance aboutits prevalence, incidence, main causes, interdisciplinary management of these patients and thesocio-economic impact generated by this disability in the country. According to the World HealthOrganization (WHO), millions of people around the world are blind or visually impaired, mostliving in developing countries. A report by the National Administrative Department of Statistics(DANE, for its initials in Spanish) shows that there are 231,072 people with visual disabilities inColombia as of March, 2009. The purpose of this review article is to show the current situationin Colombia and the world in regards to low vision.