Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

To­day is World Sight Day 2025 and the T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTB­WA) has joined the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty in call­ing for ur­gent and co­or­di­nat­ed ac­tion to pre­vent avoid­able blind­ness and vi­sion im­pair­ment.

The glob­al ob­ser­vance, held un­der the theme Love Your Eyes, un­der­scores that ac­cess to af­ford­able, qual­i­ty eye care is a right for all cit­i­zens.

In a re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the TTB­WA said the Na­tion­al Eye Sur­vey of Trinidad and To­ba­go (2013–2014) found that glau­co­ma, cataracts, and di­a­bet­ic retinopa­thy are the three lead­ing caus­es of blind­ness in the coun­try. The study al­so iden­ti­fied un­cor­rect­ed re­frac­tive er­ror and cataract as the main con­trib­u­tors to mod­er­ate and se­vere vi­sion im­pair­ment—con­di­tions that can of­ten be treat­ed or pre­vent­ed through ear­ly de­tec­tion and time­ly care.

The TTB­WA said the hu­man and eco­nom­ic costs of pre­ventable blind­ness are sig­nif­i­cant.

“Fam­i­lies of­ten lose in­come when mem­bers are forced to stop work­ing to pro­vide care, while pro­duc­tiv­i­ty de­clines as skilled work­ers are side­lined by vi­sion loss. The bur­den al­so ex­tends to so­cial ser­vices, which must meet grow­ing de­mands for health­care, dis­abil­i­ty grants, and long-term sup­port. Glob­al­ly, the cost of un­ad­dressed vi­sion im­pair­ment reach­es hun­dreds of bil­lions of dol­lars an­nu­al­ly,” ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the as­so­ci­a­tion, Ken­neth Suratt, said.

In re­sponse, the TTB­WA out­lined four na­tion­al pri­or­i­ties for im­me­di­ate at­ten­tion. These are: in­tro­duc­ing rou­tine glau­co­ma checks for adults over 40 and those with a fam­i­ly his­to­ry; elim­i­nat­ing the cataract back­log by ex­pand­ing sur­gi­cal ca­pac­i­ty and re­duc­ing wait­ing times; en­sur­ing ac­cess to af­ford­able re­frac­tive ser­vices and spec­ta­cles for chil­dren, work­ers, and old­er adults; and pro­vid­ing an­nu­al reti­nal ex­ams and time­ly treat­ment for all per­sons with di­a­betes.

The as­so­ci­a­tion has al­so em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of ear­ly de­tec­tion and in­ter­ven­tion for chil­dren. Iden­ti­fy­ing con­di­tions such as re­frac­tive er­ror, con­gen­i­tal cataract, or am­bly­opia at a young age can pre­vent learn­ing chal­lenges and sup­port full par­tic­i­pa­tion in ed­u­ca­tion, it said. For chil­dren who are blind or have low vi­sion, the TTB­WA high­light­ed the im­por­tance of ear­ly re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion through Braille lit­er­a­cy, mo­bil­i­ty train­ing, and in­clu­sive school­ing.

To sup­port sys­temic change, the TTB­WA is urg­ing the Min­istry of Health to adopt a na­tion­al Cer­tifi­cate of Vi­su­al Im­pair­ment (CVI) form de­vel­oped by the as­so­ci­a­tion. This doc­u­ment, com­plet­ed by med­ical pro­fes­sion­als, would serve as the stan­dard for ac­cess­ing gov­ern­ment ser­vices, dis­abil­i­ty grants, and dri­ver’s per­mit el­i­gi­bil­i­ty.

The as­so­ci­a­tion is al­so call­ing on the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice to in­clude the Wash­ing­ton Group dis­abil­i­ty ques­tions in the next na­tion­al cen­sus to im­prove da­ta col­lec­tion on vi­su­al im­pair­ment and dis­abil­i­ty.

Suratt said World Sight Day serves as a re­minder that pro­tect­ing sight sus­tains in­de­pen­dence and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. He added that by pri­ori­tis­ing pre­ven­tion, Trinidad and To­ba­go can en­sure that every cit­i­zen has ac­cess to the eye care they need.