More than 30 million blind and visually impaired people, i.e. with serious vision problems, live in the EU today. Diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma or macular degeneration affect people of all ages. The number of those concerned by this invisible epidemic will grow substantially in the future, mostly because of the rapidly ageing population.

People living with vision problems that impede their ability to work, learn or participate in normal life face many challenges. Eye health issues impact individuals and their families, as well as society and the economy. To address these, the EU promotes policies to discourage discrimination and build a social and inclusive environment for blind and visually impaired people.

People with disabilities have a right to accessibility in all aspects of life. The EU promotes blind and visually impaired people's access to education and culture – for example, revised copyright rules mean that more books can be made available in accessible formats like Braille, large print or audiobooks. The EU also makes sure visually impaired people are protected and can widely access and use services and products in Europe. The EU has funded projects to ensure the safety of visually impaired pedestrians for instance, and requires that public service websites and mobile applications are adapted to people with visual impairment. A wide range of products and services (e.g. bank machines, smartphones, televisions, online shopping, banking services) are now designed to be accessible to blind and visually impaired people, since the EU introduced this requirement in 2019.