We campaign for positive and lasting change for the benefit of people with sight loss. We work at local, regional, national and European Level to improve:
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legislation
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regulation
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the policies and practices of public sector and commercial organisations.
This page outlines how we campaign in Northern Ireland, and how you can help.
Would you like to get involved?
We are always looking for people with sight loss to assist with our campaigns. If you would like to get involved in:
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meeting local politicians or service providers
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taking part in campaigning events across Northern Ireland
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writing letters
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talking to the media
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helping with surveys.
Then we would love to hear from you. You can contact the Campaigns Team on 028 9032 9373 or at campaignsni@rnib.org.uk.
We campaign in six priority areas, which fit in with the main strands of the Vision Strategy (Northern Ireland)
The Northern Ireland Assembly Road shows is bringing your MLAs to you!
We will be out and about across the country talking about the work of the Assembly and hearing first hand about the issues that matter to you.
Come along, have your say and put your questions to a panel of local MLAs. Tea and Coffee are available from 7.30pm.
Dates and locations are detailed below - we hope you can join us.
22 September 2009 - Park Avenue Hotel, Belfast
23 September 2009 - Chinese Welfare Centre, Belfast
30 September 2009 - NICVA, Belfast
1 October 2009 - Farset International, Belfast
6 October 2009 - Millennium Court Arts Centre, Portadown
14 October 2009 - Burnavon Arts and Cultural Centre, Cookstown
15 October 2009 - Marine Court Hotel, Bangor
21 October 2009 - Clarion Hotel, Carrickfergus
3 November 2009 - Ards Arts Centre, Newtownards
10 November 2009 - Dunsilly Hotel, Antrim
12 November 2009 - Downpatrick Arts Centre, Downpatrick
All venues are fully accessible. If you have any special requirements or want more information, contact:
Telephone: 0289052 1220
Email: info@yourassembly.com
Or visit the Northern Ireland Assembly Twitter page
End preventable sight loss
Regular visits to get your eyes checked are a must if you want to reduce your chances of sight loss. A full eye health check does not merely assess your need for glasses or contact lenses, but can detect serious eye conditions before you yourself have realised that anything is wrong. We urge you to have your eyes checked at least once every two years up to the age of 60 and every year after that.
For many people, eye health checks are free of charge. We support demands for all charges to be dropped, but in the meantime it is money well spent.
Wet AMD - no first eye treatment yet
Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of sight loss amongst older people in the UK. Most patients have the "dry" form, for which there is currently no treatment. However, the drug Lucentis has now been in use for some years to treat the more virulent "wet" form, often with considerable success.
Initially, the NHS only offered this treatment to patients who had already lost sight in one eye and had developed wet AMD in the second. We and others campaigned strenuously to have this policy changed.
To our delight, in June 2008, the Minister for Health announced that funding was being made available to treat "first eye" patients as well.
The policy has begun to take effect on the ground, however there have been delays due to the inability to recruit additional consultants. Currently 188 people with wet AMD in the first eye are still awaiting treatment which is frustrating. However through the framework of the 'Vision Strategy Implementation Group' RNIB NI is working together with the Department of Health, the Health and Social Care Board and the Trusts to give this matter greater priority and to devise solutions to the present operational difficulties.
All written material should be accessible
Can you read your bill, your hospital appointment letter, or leaflets from your local council? As a customer, and as a citizen, you are as entitled as everyone else to read the information you want at the time you want it, whether you need large print, audio, braille or email.
Lots of banks, building societies, utility and telecoms companies do already offer bills in accessible formats, but only if you ask!
The Health Service, on the other hand, is much worse at providing you with information you can read. This can force you to compromise your privacy by getting others to read sensitive material to you.
Don't let any of these people duck their duty. Ask your local council, businesses and the NHS for your preferred reading format every time, and don't take no for an answer! Complain if they fail, or if the accessible version is late or of poor quality.
Please let the Campaigns team know how you get on by emailing campaignsni@rnib.org.uk
Education: give our kids an equal chance
Blind and partially sighted schoolchildren fare significantly less well than their sighted peers when it comes to GCSE results and to general educational and social development. We have tolerated this for too long.
Give me the book!
One cause of poor achievement is the lack of any cohesive system for producing accessible versions of textbooks. Blind and partially sighted children are often unable to get the books they need at the time they need them. This is despite the unstinting efforts of teachers and support staff, who have to spend hours cutting, pasting, scanning and re-formatting.
In this digital age, there is still no co-ordinated service for schools to use and no systematic help with accessing publishers' files or harnessing the latest technologies.
RNIB research has demonstrated clearly that these problems have a marked effect on the educational and social development of school pupils with sight loss.
Everyone in Northern Ireland agrees. The Department of Education has acknowledged that there is a need to act, but has so far felt unable to initiate any new facility.
We are calling on the Department and the new Education and Skills Authority to set up without further delay a modern, efficient system which makes full use of the latest technology and leaves teachers and support staff free to concentrate on teaching.
Maximising employment
Three quarters of blind and partially sighted people of working age are economically inactive. This is a waste of resources and greatly reduces the horizons of those affected.
We can help you find work or stay in your job through our Employment Service .
We are also working closely with the Department for Employment and Learning and with employers to increase job opportunities.
Nationally, we have been campaigning for statutory Rehabilitation Leave to help people in work adapt to the onset of disability.
Volunteering can be a way into paid work. We welcome blind and partially sighted volunteers to work with us in a number of capacities.
Maximising independence
We were delighted at our campaign success in March 2009 in changing the rules governing disability Living Allowance (DLA). Hundreds of blind people in Northern Ireland will be better off as a result.
We are very worried about current threats to Attendance Allowance. A Government Green Paper (consultation document) is proposing to scrap this for new applicants and give the money to Social Services for them to devise targeted care. Although technically this only applies to England at the moment, benefits in Northern Ireland would also be at risk if these proposals went through.
Assessment of your needs and the supply of training and equipment from health and social care trusts has long been patchy and often paltry. We are working closely with the Department of Health and with the new Health and Social Care bodies to introduce a consistent and adequate service.
Ending exclusion
When did you last go to the pictures? A lot of cinemas in Northern Ireland now have audio description, so that you can follow what is happening when nobody is speaking. Give it a try - it makes a real difference!
We are calling for more audio description in cinemas and theatres, more live commentaries at sporting events and greater visual awareness across the entertainment, sporting, leisure and retail fields.
One centre of attention for this work will be the Lisburn in focus project funded by the Big Lottery fund. This will get under way towards the end of 2009.
Stormont all party group on visual impairment
The rights, needs and aspirations of the 48,000 people in Northern Ireland with sight loss have received a boost with the creation at the Northern Ireland Assembly of an all party group on visual impairment.
The Group will act as a focal point for MLAs' to scrutinise health, social care, education, employment and other services provided by the Executive and by public agencies. In particular, it will monitor the implementation of the Vision Strategy
The Group was launched at Stormont on 28 October, 2008, by its first elected Chair, Cllr Naomi Long MLA. Assembly Members from across the political spectrum have signed up to the Group.
Contact us
For further information on our campaigning, or to share your successes or frustrations with us, ring the Campaigns Team on 028 9032 9373 or email us at campaignsni@rnib.org.uk.