The purpose of this study is to examine the empathetic characteristics of visually impaired adults through analyzing the cognitive, emotional and expressive empathetic level of visually impaired adults depending on the background variable. To this end, the purpose of the study was first explained and cooperation was requested. After then, the questionnaire was sent out. A total of 119 visually impaired adults were screened wirelessly and they were asked to fill up the questionnaire. The characteristic variables of study subjects included the period during which they attended the school for visual impairment, the severity of visual impairment, the occupation, etc. This study selected those adults who did not have more than one duplicate disability in addition to visual impairment. As for the data collected in this study, IBM SPSS Statistics 21 was utilized. To examine the cognitive, emotional and expressive empathetic level of visually impaired adults, t-test and One-way ANOVA were calculated. Also, Pearson correlation was conducted in order to determine the correlation between the cognitive, emotional and expressive empathetic factors of visually impaired adults. The results as to this study are as follows. First, Those visually impaired adults with total blindness, who relied on auditory and tactile senses, had a high level of emotional and expressive empathy, whereas the visually impaired adults with low visual acuity, who relied on the remaining visual acuity, had a high level of cognitive empathy. As a result of examining the analysis outcome of cognitive, emotional and expressive empathetic level for each background variable of visually impaired adults, those visually impaired adults who had attended the school for visually impairment for more than 6 years had a higher level of emotional and expressive empathy than the visually impaired adults who had attended the school for visual impairment for less than 6 years. From the examination of emphatic level in accordance with occupation, the teachers were found to have the highest cognitive empathetic level, whereas social workers were found to have the highest level of emotional and expressive empathy. Second, as a result of analyzing the relationship between the empathetic factors of visually impaired adults, a correlation was found between the emotional empathy total score and expressive empathy total score. On the other hand, no correlation was found between taking viewpoint, which are the sub-domains of cognitive empathy and emotional empathy total score, imagining which are the sub-domains of cognitive empathy and the empathy total score, the cognitive empathy total score and emotional empathy total score. These findings mean that an expressive emphatic level will not be high even when embracing the viewpoint of other people. On that account, it is necessary to understand the characteristics for each empathetic factor in order to understand the empathetic characteristics of visually impaired adults. It is believed that the results of this study can be utilized as preliminary data for developing and applying an empathy program for visually impaired adults.