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Advocacy Goal

To pursue the elimination of discrimination based on vision loss by influencing public policy and increasing public awareness.

Themes and Directions:

Partnerships and collaboration are a critical success factor for our advocacy efforts. Working with other equality-seeking groups will strengthen our voice and help ensure that issues of blindness and vision impairment are recognised and included in the government policy agenda.

Over the next five years, our key advocacy goal is to ensure that governments recognise that vision rehabilitation, adaptive technology, and library and information services are as essential as any other health or social service — and therefore warrant direct government support and funding through an integrated approach of all Government departments.

Key Activity 1:

We will work to influence public policy as part of a consistent approach to the elimination of discrimination.

Supporting actions:

  • Establish a proactive and ongoing public affairs programme which integrates with the work of other bodies and agencies in the pursuance of our advocacy goals.
  • Be proactive in areas that ensure that people who are blind and vision impaired receive an education commensurate with their abilities, obtain work to the level of their competencies and expectations and enjoy all of the rights of citizenship.
  • Explore the potential for creating local volunteer action groups of people who are blind and vision impaired and other volunteers.

Key Activity 2:

We will develop a programme of public awareness to inform on issues relating to vision loss

Supporting actions:

  • Build up appropriate resources for information dissemination, awareness and training, to engage selected audiences, remembering that some of those audiences will not regard English as their preferred language of communication.
  • Develop the use of NCBI’s website as a structured information and promotion resource.
  • Promote personal profile campaigns in which people who are blind and vision impaired identify what it means for them to live with and to overcome the obstacles confronted by sight loss.
  • Promote the abilities of people who are blind and vision impaired.
  • Implement awareness programmes with employers to enhance equal opportunities for blind or vision impaired people by assisting in removing policy, programme and attitudinal barriers to their employment.