Events / Upcoming
Vision Health Canada’s 2026 Conference Series
One Voice. Clear Focus. Collective Action.
Our conferences are designed to bring together people who are blind or partially sighted, people with lived experience, patients, vision stakeholders, clinicians, clinician students, researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers to advance eye care in Canada.
World Sight Day Conference 2026
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Toronto Public Reference Library, Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario (east side of Yonge, just north of Bloor)
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Doors open at 9:00 a.m. for a complimentary continental breakfast. Lunch will also be served.
Theme: Alignment and Action: Our Annual Progress Report on the Status of Canada’s Eye Health
Program Highlights:
Forging a unified path forward: Uncovering myopia, an epidemic of serious proportions among grade school children, and what we are doing about it
AI Part 2: Its benefits for people living with blindness or partial sight, and for early diagnosis of eye disease. Where is it taking us, and what are its risks?
Introducing screen actor Ellen Gould and her big-screen production, Seeing Stars. A soaring musical film that opens the lens on a world seldom seen from the inside. Gould, the writer, composer, and solo performer, inhabits the stories of five women like herself who became legally blind from Stargardt’s early in life.
The Eye Disease Prevalence Study: Why 3,000 eye examinations matter
Bill C-284 regulations and the case for government funding: Vision Health Canada’s overview of Canada’s current eye health status, future outlook, and expectations, with input from the vision health community (to be available in both print and digital formats at the conference)
And more
Our final program schedule will be available two weeks prior to the conference.
Vision Health Month Conference 2026
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
North York Central Library, located in North York City Centre, 5120 Yonge St., North York, ON
10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Doors open at 9:00 a.m. for a complimentary continental breakfast. Lunch will also be served.
Theme: The conference will open with a keynote from Dr. Robert Levine, Founder and CEO of the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative (MTM Vision). Dr. Levine will lead a discussion on diabetes and diabetic retinopathy, as well as MTM Vision’s work toward a world without vision loss and blindness caused by diabetes. Currently, there is no cure for diabetic retinal disease.
Program Highlights:
The Future Is Now – AI Part 1: Bridging Technology and Equity in Eye Care
An update on the implementation of Bill C-284, the Act to establish a national strategy for eye care, presented by Elizabeth Toller, Director General of Health Care Strategies at Health Canada
Ontario Population-Based Eye Disease Prevalence Study update
The final program schedule will be available on Monday, April 27.
Regarding Our Keynote Speakers
Our conference keynote speakers are leaders in their fields and are carefully selected to engage and inspire attendees. We will announce their participation 45 days prior to each conference.
Vision Health Canada
Vision Health Canada (VHC) is committed to advocating for a future without vision barriers. This will be achieved through ongoing collaborative leadership in policy reform, research, advocating for improved treatments, technological innovation, and community empowerment, all while working to position Canada as a global leader in achieving vision health equity. VHC is dedicated to supporting those with lived experience — our families, our friends, our neighbours, and our co-workers who are blind, DeafBlind, or partially-sighted — to ensure a quality of life equivalent to that of our fellow Canadians and to transform vision health across Canada.
During our 2026 conference series, VHC will aim to move beyond just discussion to deliver practical strategies, based on the latest data and driven by a shared commitment with our community to a future where no Canadian faces preventable blindness. Together, we hope to spark the translation of research into practice and policy into action.