World Sight Day 2025

Each October, the world turns its focus to something so vital yet often overlooked: our vision. World Sight Day, observed annually on the second Thursday of October, serves as a reminder of the importance of eye health in learning, safety, productivity, and overall quality of life. In 2025, it falls on Thursday, 9 October, under the global theme “Love Your Eyes”.

Led by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), this international campaign encourages people everywhere to take simple, practical steps to protect their sight while calling on organisations, policymakers, and health systems to make eye care accessible and equitable for all.

In this blog, Anna Nova Galeon will explore why eye health is everyone’s responsibility, not only for individuals but also for employers, educators, and care providers. She will also explore how World Sight Day connects with organisational duty of care, workplace safety, and inclusion and how regulated sectors can embed vision awareness into everyday compliance, wellbeing, and governance frameworks.

Seeing the big picture - What is World Sight Day?

World Sight Day is a global awareness initiative held each year on the second Thursday of October. The IAPB established it in partnership with the WHO to highlight the importance of eye health and the need to reduce avoidable blindness and vision impairment worldwide.

In 2025, the theme “Love Your Eyes” continues to champion the right to sight, urging everyone to prioritise regular eye checks, raise awareness in their communities, and advocate for accessible eye care services. The campaign also calls for stronger integration of vision care within global health and occupational systems.

Globally, over 2 billion people live with some form of vision impairment, and almost half of these cases could have been prevented or remain unaddressed. Common causes such as refractive errors, cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration can be detected early through regular eye examinations. When left untreated, they can lead not only to blindness but also to reduced quality of life, lost productivity, and increased health and social care costs.

World Sight Day is therefore more than a date on the calendar; it’s a movement that connects health, dignity, inclusion, and productivity. And for regulated organisations, it offers a timely reminder that protecting sight is part of protecting people.

Why eye health matters for regulated organisations

In highly regulated sectors, such as healthcare, education, social care, manufacturing, transportation, and finance, the well-being of people directly impacts compliance, safety, and performance. Visual health plays a critical yet often underestimated role in all three. Below are five key reasons why eye health should be a priority for organisations:

Workplace health, safety, and performance

Good vision is essential for performing safety-critical tasks, including reading medical charts, operating machinery, handling chemicals, and managing digital data. Undiagnosed vision problems can increase the risk of accidents, mistakes, or fatigue. Integrating eye care into occupational health programmes strengthens risk prevention and employee well-being.

Legal and duty-of-care obligations

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Under the 1974 Act and associated regulations, UK employers are required to provide a safe working environment. This includes ensuring that employees have the visual capacity to carry out their roles safely and effectively. Regular eye checks, adjustments for visual impairments, and the provision of suitable equipment (such as screen filters or prescription safety glasses) demonstrate compliance with these obligations.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

The Equality Act 2010 requires organisations to make reasonable adjustments for workers with disabilities, including visual impairments. Proactive support, such as accessible training materials, screen reader-compatible systems, or adaptive technologies, fosters inclusion and strengthens compliance with equality.

ESG and reputational value

Championing eye health aligns with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments, reinforcing a culture of responsibility and compassion. When organisations invest in the health and safety of their workforce, they build trust with employees, regulators, and the wider community.

Organisational resilience and productivity

Vision problems often develop gradually, making them easy to overlook. Regular screening and awareness initiatives can prevent issues from escalating into lost productivity, sickness absence, or costly incidents. Vision health is not only a medical concern, it’s a strategic enabler of resilience and performance.

Key concepts behind the 2025 theme

Understanding the key ideas behind World Sight Day helps organisations engage meaningfully with the campaign and align their internal initiatives with its global goals.

Avoidable vision loss

A central message of World Sight Day is that most visual impairment is avoidable, either preventable through public health measures (like eye protection, healthy lifestyles, and diabetes management) or treatable through early detection and correction.

Universal eye health

The IAPB defines universal eye health through the “three A’s”: accessible, available, and affordable eye care for all. Organisations that promote these values internally by offering screenings, covering optical benefits, or ensuring accessible materials help advance this global goal.

Every story counts

This year’s campaign places people’s experiences at its heart. Behind every statistic is a person, a worker, a teacher, a carer whose world changes when their sight is protected. Sharing these real-life stories within organisations can humanise compliance and make wellbeing tangible.

Practical actions for World Sight Day 2025

Highly regulated organisations can make World Sight Day part of their compliance and well-being calendars. Here are practical ways to translate awareness into action:

1. Run an internal “Love Your Eyes” campaign - Use IAPB resources to share educational posters, emails, and webinars across departments
2. Offer onsite or partnered eye screenings - Collaborate with local optometrists or occupational health providers to deliver free or discounted eye checks
3. Promote digital well-being - Encourage the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds to reduce screen strain
4. Integrate eye care into health and safety training - Include vision-related modules in induction and refresher courses
5. Ensure accessibility and inclusion - Review your systems, policies, and training materials for visual accessibility (e.g., font size, contrast, alternative text)
6. Engage leaders and teams - Encourage executives and managers to take part in screenings or share their own experiences of eye care to model a culture of well-being
7. Link campaigns to data and outcomes - Track participation rates, risk reductions, or satisfaction metrics to demonstrate the impact of compliance.

These small yet meaningful actions signal that your organisation doesn’t just comply, it cares.

Turning awareness into sustainable change

Sustaining change means moving beyond one-off observances toward a systematic approach to wellbeing and compliance. Embedding eye health into regular training, audits, and policy reviews demonstrates a mature approach to governance. It also aligns with modern regulatory expectations that prioritise preventive, person-centred, and data-informed approaches to workforce health.

When organisations see compliance through a human lens, awareness days like World Sight Day become catalysts for lasting impact, shaping safer, fairer, and more compassionate workplaces.

Empower your organisation with ComplyPlus™

At The Mandatory Training Group, meaningful awareness must lead to measurable action. Our integrated compliance ecosystem, ComplyPlus™, helps regulated organisations embed well-being, including vision care initiatives, directly into their governance and training frameworks.

With ComplyPlus™, your organisation can:

• Integrate campaigns like World Sight Day into learning and compliance schedules

• Track engagement and training completion through real-time dashboards

• Manage risk, audits, and employee well-being within one unified system

• Demonstrate evidence-based compliance during inspections and reporting to ensure accurate and timely information.

This World Sight Day 2025, look beyond awareness. See compliance differently as a living system that protects, empowers, and sustains your people.