Vision Australia is an organization that works to support people who have low vision at work or are blind. A major partner and participant in the international blindness community, Vision Australia has 33,000 current clients. The not for profit organization is serving clients across 28 centres of the charity like New South Wales, ACT, Victoria and Queensland, and 29 clinics at other locations. There are also outreach services in Tasmania and Northern Territory.
Blind people or those with low vision need support in the life that they have chosen for themselves. Vision Australia supports them through this. The organization is built on foundations of respect for clients and colleagues and works with professionalism and integrity.
What they do
Blind people should be a productive part of the society and Vision Australia takes this belief to the extent of finding equal job opportunities for blind people and then training them through the process of employment. The human rights statement of the organization is in line with the UN convention on Rights of Disabled Persons.
History
In July 2004, Vision Australia was founded after the merger of four different organizations. The Royal Blind Society (RBS), National Information Library Services (NILS), Vision Australia Foundation (VAF) and Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB) combined together and the structure was further expanded when The Royal Blind Foundation Queensland and Hear a Book joined in December 2006 and November 2007 respectively. The latter is a producer of audio books from Tasmania. Together these institutions have 600 years of experience after July 2008 Seeing Eye Dogs also merged with it. SEDA has made the organization the only provider of national dog guide services.
The merger took place as the organizations realized that they can deliver in a better way if their efforts were exercised in synergy. The operations of the organization ensure that transparency is evident in the operations and all the standards of integration and values are upheld.
Programs
Accessibility Services
People with disabilities need accessibility to the digital world through their limitations. Vision Australia provides accessibility systems to these people.
Employment Services
The employment services of this organization ensure good advice, training and counselling for people who are looking to settle in existing jobs or finding new ones.
Access to Prints
Australians who have difficulty in reading standard prints need accessibility to the medium. The organization uptakes the task to make this happen. This is done by converting standard printing formats into those that can be accessed by people with low vision or blindness.
Accessible environments
In order to create equal opportunities for people with and without vision problems it is important that the place they work at is accessible to the disabled by all means. It also reaches out to employers who employ people with low vision in order to help them develop a disability friendly infrastructure.
How you can Help?
You can join Vision Australia as a volunteer for any work group. There is always an option of making regular or irregular donations in organizations like this.
