VISION LOSS IN AMERICA

Low vision is the leading cause of disability in the United States.  Consider these facts:

Americans are living with uncorrectable vision loss, including more than 1-million who are living with blindness.

Americans have undiagnosed vision impairments.

of visual impairments are considered preventable through access to basic health resources such as vision care, glasses and education.

of ALL of American school-age children have an undiagnosed vision condition that restricts academic and social successes.

of BVI students are learning to read or code in braille, which is a critical skill directly linked to employability. 

of blind + visually impaired students are AT LEAST one grade level behind in STEM subjects. 20% are five grade levels behind.

of blind, low vision and vision-impaired k-12 students historically drop out of high school. High school dropouts are almost 3x as likely to be unemployed than college graduates.

has access and usage barriers that unfairly disadvantage low-income BVI persons. This digital divide is a human rights issue.

people with disabilities struggle to find work. If disabled workers experienced the same employment rate as those without a disability, nearly 14,000,000 more disabled people would have been employed last year.

Vision loss and blindness are among the top 10 disabilities in the United States, causing substantial social, economic and psychological effects, including increased morbidity, increased mortality and decreased quality of life.

adult American minorities have low health literacy, putting their families in jeopardy for vision loss.