Through our advocacy work we aim to eliminate discrimination based on sight loss by influencing public policy and increasing public awareness. Our advocacy work encompasses both individual and systemic advocacy.
On an individual basis, NCBI assists people with vision impairments and their families to find out about their rights, explores the services that are available to them, provides information on benefits and entitlements and provides guidance on employment, education and any number of other areas. Our website now features a ‘Know your Rights’ section, which outlines the rights of people with vision impairments in gaining access to travel, information, services and buildings.
Our systemic advocacy work aims to influence public policy and decision making in government and in the wider community. During 2010 NCBI developed position papers on shared space, voting and electric vehicles. In May, Des Kenny, Chief Executive; Elaine Howley, Director of Services and Lina Kouzi, Library and Media Centre manager, met with the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to present the difficulties that people who are blind or vision impaired face in these areas and to discuss funding for NCBI’s library, the only national library for blind people in Ireland.
NCBI joined forces with the Association of Optometrists Ireland, Irish College of Ophthalmologists and Pfizer Healthcare Ireland to call for greater awareness of glaucoma during World Glaucoma Week in March. To raise awareness of the condition among decision makers in Ireland, free glaucoma eye tests were offered to TDs, Senators and staff at Leinster House during World Glaucoma Week. Free glaucoma screening was also available at participating independent optometrists around the country for the week.
We worked with a lot of the same partners to highlight age-related macular degeneration (AMD) Awareness Week in September, alongside Novartis. The aim of AMD Awareness Week is to increase public awareness on how to spot the symptoms of AMD and to highlight the importance of early diagnosis. RTÉ’s Mary Kennedy worked with the AMD awareness partners to help encourage Irish people to look after their eye health.