From the latest UN data available, the Vision Impact Institute has estimated that there are 2.5bn people in the world who have poor vision, and no means of correcting it. That is not far short of the number of people who live in China, India and Japan, combined.

根据联合国(UN)现有最新数据，视力影响研究院(Vision Impact Institute)估计，全球有25亿人患有未矫正的视力障碍问题。这个数字几乎相当于中国、印度和日本人口的总和。

It is thought that nearly 80 per cent of these cases could be corrected by something as simple as a pair of glasses.

而视力影响研究院认为，其中近80%的人只需一副眼镜就能矫正。

Poor vision is not a life-threatening condition; it falls into a non-urgent category, which puts it low on the priority scale for development funding, often failing to make the list for global health and economic targets.This categorisation is undeserved and must change. According to a landmark¹ report published by Access Economics, rates of poor vision are costing the global economy an estimated $3tn a year. That’s more than the total gross domestic product of Africa.

视力障碍并不危及生命；它被划分为非紧急问题，因此在发展资金的资助对象中优先等级靠后，经常不在全球健康和经济发展目标之列。这种划分不恰当，必须改变。根据Access Economics发表的一份具有里程碑意义的报告，视力障碍估计每年导致全球经济损失3万亿美元，超过非洲国内生产总值(GDP)的总和。

Current rates of poor vision are a crippling impediment to economic growth, particularly in developing economies.

目前庞大的视力障碍人口数量阻碍了经济发展，特别是在发展中经济体。

Existing research demonstrates the direct costs of poor vision on healthcare provision, as well as the indirect costs of lost productivity in the workplace, road and domestic accidents and informal and family care.

现有的研究显示了视力障碍给医疗供应带来的直接成本，以及劳动生产率下降、道路和室内事故、非正式和家庭看护等间接成本。

However, even the current cost is likely to be a conservative estimate. Poor vision is also having a widespread impact on school attendance, personal development, and literacy rates, which are far more difficult to quantify.

然而，甚至连当前成本也可能是一个保守的估计。视力障碍还对学校出勤率、个人发展以及识字率造成普遍影响，这些都很难量化。

For example, a pilot study that took place in rural China last year, demonstrated that the impact of vision on children’s educational outcomes, significantly outstripped² the enormous influence of both parental³ education and family wealth.

例如，一份去年在中国农村地区开展的试点研究显示，视力对于儿童学习成绩的影响远远超过了家庭教育和家庭财富的巨大影响。

Childhood education and literacy targets are rightly a high priority on the global health and social agenda. Yet, whilst the endemic problem of uncorrected vision remains⁴ unacknowledged, children across the globe are prevented from accessing the benefits of the education, and literacy support available.

儿童教育和识字率目标理应列在全球健康和社会发展议程的优先位置。然而，未矫正视力的普遍问题仍然没有得到充分认识，全球儿童无法充分享受教育福利以及现有的扫盲支持。

There is a genuine concern that failing to tackle this essential human need is preventing the work of global humanitarian⁵ agencies from having the impact they should.

人们确实担心，这个根本的人类需要未得到满足，正阻碍全球人道主义组织的工作发挥应有的影响。

Poor vision also has a dramatic effect on the world of work. There is substantive⁶ evidence demonstrating the direct impact of poor vision on productivity, with the World Health Organization estimating that the impact of poor vision on global productivity costs $272bn.

视力障碍也会对劳动场所造成巨大影响。很多证据证明视力障碍会对生产率造成直接影响，世界卫生组织(WHO)估计，视力障碍造成的全球生产率损失达到2720亿美元。

A recent study published by the Vision Impact Institute showed that 80 per cent of workers in textile factories in South India unknowingly required vision correction, which, when provided, lead to a boost of 45 per cent in productivity.

视力影响研究院最近发布的一项研究显示，在印度南部纺织工厂工人中，有80%的人视力需要矫正而不自知，如果得到矫正，他们的生产率将提高45%。

Anecdotal evidence also suggests that low productivity caused by poor vision can lead to an employment gap, or job losses, particularly in developing economies where large unemployment pools mean that labour can be rapidly replaced.

坊间证据还显示，视力障碍导致的生产率低下可能会造成就业损失，尤其是在发展中经济体，那里的大批失业人口意味着劳动力可以迅速被替代。

And perhaps most urgently, a recent report published by the World Health Organization has shown that in many African countries road traffic accidents are now responsible for more deaths than malaria⁷. In the next five years, they will be the biggest cause of death across the continent – many of which as a direct result of poor eyesight.

或许最为紧迫的问题是，世卫组织最近公布的一份报告显示，在很多非洲国家，道路交通事故导致的死亡率高于疟疾。未来5年，前者将成为非洲人的最大死因，其中很多是由视力障碍直接导致的。

It might be an imperceptible disability – but it is one that is having a seismic⁸ impact on both economic and social development in countries around the world.

这或许是一种人们感觉不到的残疾，但它将给世界各国的经济和社会发展都造成巨大影响。

However, in a world that has found unimaginable cures for some of the most vicious diseases, created cars that can drive themselves, and sparked a brand new race to put mankind on Mars, it is evident that we are capable of finding a solution to providing equal access to clear vision across the globe.

然而，在当今世界，一些最可怕的疾病已找到不可思议的疗法，无人驾驶汽车已被制造出来，一场把人类送上火星的全新竞赛已经启动，因此我们显然有能力找到解决办法，让全世界人民平等享有清晰的视力。

It will require the backing of leading innovators and technologists, scientists and investors⁹, big business, governments and NGOs, to take on this challenge and rethink the approach to world vision.

要迎接这一挑战并重新思考解决全球视力问题的方法，就需要领先的创新者、技术专家、科学家、投资者、大企业、政府以及非政府组织的支持。

However, investing in improving vision comes with high returns. PwC estimates that for every $1 invested, there is an average $4 of economic gain. In Pakistan, for example, a country with the potential to become one of the world’s largest economies, the cost of eliminating avoidable blindness is $11.6bn, but it would deliver a $70 billion benefit to the country’s economy.

然而，投资于改善视力会获得高回报。普华永道(PwC)估计，每投入1美元，就会获得平均4美元的经济收益。例如，在有潜力成为全球最大经济体之一的巴基斯坦，消除可以避免的失明需要投入116亿美元，但它将为该国经济带来700亿美元的收益。

There are already a number of promising¹⁰ innovations in diagnostics emerging, which have the potential to be genuinely transformative.

目前在诊断领域已出现很多大有希望的创新，它们可能会起到真正的变革作用。

Just one example is a new technology that allows health care workers to take high quality retinal images using a smart phone. The digital images captured are of a high enough resolution to assist in the detection of cataracts¹¹, macular degeneration, diabetes¹² and glaucoma.

例如，有一种新技术可以让健康护理工作者用一部智能手机拍摄高质量的视网膜图像。这些数码照片像素很高，足以帮助检测白内障、黄斑退化、糖尿病和青光眼。

This innovation is evidence of the enormous potential created when just a small team of eye-specialists, public health doctors and product designers come together to solve a single problem.

这种创新证明，一个由眼科专家、公共健康医生以及产品设计师组成的小团队聚集在一起解决问题会创造巨大的潜能。

Organizations have also begun to capitalize on the potential of new drone technology, connecting aid-workers to fleets of the aircraft via SMS, to overcome the problem of poor infrastructure¹³ and accessibility of aid. Imagine the impact if this technology was deployed¹⁴ to provide better vision to the developing world.

一些组织已开始利用新的无人机技术，将援助工作者通过短信与无人机机群互联，以解决落后的基础设施和援助难获得的问题。想象一下，如果利用这种技术改善发展中国家人口的视力，会产生什么影响。

In order to tackle this global challenge, we need to replicate¹⁵, amplify¹⁶ and coordinate¹⁷ these advances, on a global scale. It can and it must be done.

为了应对这一全球性挑战，我们需要在全球范围内复制、放大并协调这些进步。这是可以做到的，也是必须要做的。

It has been 700 years since the humble¹⁸ spectacle was invented, and yet billions of people in the developing world do not have access to them.

自人类发明不起眼的眼镜已过去700年了，然而发展中国家仍有数十亿人戴不上眼镜。

It’s time to harness the available new tools and new insights for the next wave of innovation.

现在是为下一波创新浪潮利用现有的新工具和新见解的时候了。

It’s time for us to lead a charge to put vision on the global agenda, where it belongs.

我们应该带头努力让视力问题进入其应属的全球议程。