Foreword
NCBI was founded in 1931 and as we are now celebrating our 75th year it is only appropriate that we review our beginnings and re-call the developments that have occurred in the intervening years.
The climate in which we are now working is clearly very different from that which existed when the founding members set out to establish services with an emphasis to people who were blind. Consequently, in the year of our 75th anniversary, it is timely to reassess the direction of the organisation and to create a framework to take us into the future. This is the essence of what is intended in our strategic plan, which is presented in the following pages.
The National Council for the Blind of Ireland was founded by Alice Armitage in 1931 with the purpose of alleviating poverty among the people who were blind in Ireland at that time. NCBI’s work was carried out by means of direct assistance in the form of cash and material grants, e.g. food and fuel, as well as the creation of income-generating schemes such as craft industries. NCBI also employed ‘Home Teachers for the Blind’ who were trained in teaching communication skills to people who were blind. The foregoing mirrored the then levels of service interventions in the UK.
The 1980s saw a shift in this focus with the recognition that the issues surrounding disability were much broader than those perceived by our founders and could no longer be met solely by the founding approach to our work.
New service developments in the early 80s included the employment of people from a social work background who were subsequently trained by NCBI in rehabilitation skills. As we move forward in the 21st century, this approach to staffing our service delivery will remain at the heart of current and future ways of delivering our services, substantially augmented by staff from other disciplines, by peer developed services and by volunteer activity.
We have moved from our charitable foundations right through to a social and transactional model for interpreting disability.
Historically, NCBI provided services to individuals who were blind or vision impaired and their families. These have, however, been complimented in more recent years by the development of a range of services to the public at large, the aim of which is to educate and advocate for the rights of people with a vision disability, including their accommodation within a barrier free environment.
As part of these developments, NCBI addressed one of the most disabling aspects of blindness and vision impairment, i.e. access to the printed word and its pathways to education, literature, and culture, when, in 1988, it took under its wing the library services of the Irish Association for the Blind. Since then NCBI has continued to develop and expand this service through the provision of an expansive library and reading service to people who are blind or vision impaired in Braille and voice recorded formats. In addition to providing a library service directly to individuals, NCBI today contributes to the increasing demand for accessible information through our media conversion service to public and private bodies.
The other more recent shift in service provision has been in the area of low vision services. Traditionally, we provided services to people who were legally blind, a definition which was developed by the Blind Persons Act of 1920, in order to set the medical criterion for eligibility to financial benefits. However, with an increased body of research indicating the negative impact of vision loss on quality of life and the positive impact of early intervention, NCBI has developed a range of services to people who heretofore would not qualify on medical grounds. This area of low vision rehabilitation allows for people to adjust in a planned way to the potential deterioration of their quality of sight without a commensurate reduction in their quality of life.
NCBI is guided by the World Health Organisation’s definition of a person with low vision as being ‘someone who has an impairment of visual functioning even after treatment and/or standard refractive correction, but who uses, or is potentially able to use, vision for the planning and/or execution of a task’.
NCBI has in the past delivered a range of services to people who are blind or vision impaired to enable them to develop the skills and techniques necessary to fully participate in society, and will continue to do so into the future. We will, however, equally commit to reducing misconceptions and prejudices and in building capacity in areas which tackle the ‘real problems of blindness’.
One of the areas in which we have invested a considerable amount of energy over the years has been that of fundraising as a resource for the development of services. As we have moved into what can be viewed as a more modern type of statutorily-funded service provision, it could be said that many of the funding issues have been addressed through the current funding arrangements with the HSE. However, NCBI’s ability to develop and to innovate new services continues to rely on our capacity to generate fundraised income.
This strategic plan is accompanied by other significant changes in how the agency now represents itself, such as a new logo, new website and the rebranding of the organisation to NCBI (from National Council for the Blind of Ireland). The strapline which follows NCBI, ‘working for people living with sight loss’, is intended to indicate the broad and inclusive nature of our services to people with sight loss. These combined changes are all part of a process towards the presentation of a more modern image of an evolving organisation.
We acknowledge with deep appreciation all those who took the time and effort to give their considered opinions, in meetings, surveys and discussions, about the future direction of NCBI. We trust that you will find that this strategic plan reflects the essence of these measured contributions.
We also recognise that various challenges may be faced as we work towards the realisation of our vision. At times considerable effort will be required as we move towards a more effective way of working. However we have considerable trust in the expertise and professionalism of all our key stakeholders to ensure that what we have set out is achievable.