The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind or Blind Foundation, now publicly branded as Blind Low Vision NZ, is a provider of services to blind, deafblind and people with vision-impairment in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

History

The Foundation began in 1890 as the Jubilee Institute for the Blind with a school and residence in

Parnell, Auckland Parnell is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is one of New Zealand's most affluent suburbs, consistently ranked within the top three wealthiest, and is often billed as Auckland's "oldest suburb" since it dates from the earliest days of the ...

Sheltered workshop The term sheltered workshop refers to an organization or environment that employs people with disabilities separately from others, usually with exemptions from labor standards, including but not limited to the absence of minimum wage requirements. ...

s and

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

s were provided for many years. These were phased out at the end of the twentieth century in favour of mainstreaming, members' greater integration into the community. A school run by the Foundation became part of the public school system. The ''Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act 2002'' allows for the Foundation to become an incorporated society. After a rebranding consultation process, the public name of the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, changed to Blind Foundation in December 2013.

Services

Blind Low Vision NZ's website lists the following services: emotional support, equipment, financial assistance,

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

assistance, mobility,

guide dog Guide dogs (colloquially known in the US as seeing-eye dogs) are assistance dogs trained to lead blind or visually impaired people around obstacles. Although dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are red–green colour blin ...

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

assistance,

peer support Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters (although it can be provided by peers without training), and can ...

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasur ...

reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

and

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

and other formats, library, Telephone Information Service, accessible formats (braille, audio, electronic text and large print), adaptive communications and technology. The majority of the organisation's funding comes from public donations. TV3 News.

References

External links

Official website
Blindness organizations Disability organisations based in New Zealand Organisations based in New Zealand with royal patronage Special education in New Zealand {{NewZealand-org-stub