The foregoing represents NCBI’s vision and outline plan for service delivery over the five years 2007 to 2012. Each year a business plan will be prepared which will identify specific work to be undertaken to implement the strategy.

For this strategic plan to work, it must be adopted by the staff of NCBI as a mirror in which our best endeavours are reflected on behalf of our service users. The service user will be given a new position of prominence in the delivery of all of our services. We must learn to listen better to one another and to our service users.

To create an effective voice for people who are blind or vision impaired means learning to collaborate with others and setting aside partisan ways of working in favour of a collective influence on the issues which require attention.

Achieving all aspects of the strategic plan is highly dependent on increasing the available resources of finance and staff to meet the supporting actions set out in our six strategic goals. We will have to bridge a considerable performance gap between where NCBI is today and where we want it to be in five years from now.

How will we know that NCBI is making progress towards achieving our vision that people who are blind or vision impaired have the same opportunities, rights and choices as others to fully participate in society?

NCBI will know that we are making progress towards answering the above question when more people who are blind or vision impaired are:

• Accessing the necessary services and supports to assist in the timely achievement of developmental milestones in early childhood.

• Achieving in education in accordance with their individual potential.

• Participating equally in higher education and adult learning.

• Contributing to the workforce and receiving appropriate remuneration.

• Participating actively in family life and civil society.

• Experiencing improvements in physical and mental health.

• Actively engaging in sport, recreation, culture, and politics.

• Enjoying old-age while benefiting from supporting services that take account of sight loss.

We must also be able to measure progress on the implementation of our strategic plan, particularly our priority commitments, as expressed in our six strategic goals. We will develop an evaluation framework which will include performance indicators, service user satisfaction ratings, recognised standards for programme evaluation, and financial measurements. A strategic plan progress report will be prepared by the CEO within the first quarter of the year following each year of the plan. This progress report will be published in our annual report and will be available on our web site.

We could have opted, in planning terms, for a less ambitious future for NCBI but that would have delivered short on the expectations of those who use and look to NCBI services to enable them to overcome the barriers that impede their independence and participation in society. If NCBI is to continue to make a real difference in support of people who are blind or vision impaired, we must continue to be ambitious on their behalf and raise our service horizons to maximise the benefits and opportunities arising from Ireland’s progression towards becoming a more inclusive society for all of its citizens, including those who are vision impaired or who are blind.