The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) is celebrating 100 years of providing services and programming for blind and partially-sighted Canadians.
On March 20, CNIB Sudbury hosted a community open house in celebration of the organization marking a century of service. Community members were welcomed into the CNIB to tour the building and try their hands at a number of activities including a blindfolded obstacle course, doodle in the dark, and writing their names in braille.
Information stations were set up throughout the building with educational videos on blind sports like goalball and blind hockey, and were also shown a presentation with described video.
The CNIB in Sudbury serves about 1,000 clients, providing services like peer support, home-based support, youth empowerment, while advocating for building a more accessible society in which blind and partially-sighted individuals can take part without obstacles.
"I'm so proud to be here and to see all the progress that has been made in the first 100 years," said Monique Pilkington, CNIB Sudbury executive director. "In this age of progress we still have some barriers to overcome and we need to aim high moving forward."
A number of CNIB clients were on-hand for the open house, some sharing their stories of how the CNIB has helped in their day-to-day lives. Margaret French shared her daughter Georgia's story, commending the work of Brenda Peacock, a CNIB employee who has been instrumental in the French family's lives.
Georgia, who is two years old, was born with a degenerative eye disease and the challenges were many for Margaret and her husband, along with Georgia.
"It's been a whirlwind 18 months for us. Not only being new parents but being parents to a child with an eye disease," said French. "It's been a learning experience every day. We've learned that when it's meal time, Georgia needs her dishes and tablecloth to be contrasting colours so she can see them better. Our goals with Georgia were for her to be able to feed herself and to safely navigate stairs. She's very dignified and refuses to go down the stairs on her bum, so we have to make sure that she can see and reach the railings."
It's an exciting time at the CNIB, as they are now receiving provincial funding for rehabilitation services, freeing up donor dollars to go into programs like the peer support program which offers one-on-one support either in person or over the phone and provides coping mechanisms for the emotional challenges of sight loss.
Just $2,400 of funding will provide training for 12 volunteers to become support group leaders for hundreds of people with vision loss.
While the organization is making strides forward, Pilkington says that there is still a lot of work to be done, particularly when it comes to finding work for blind and partially-sighted individuals.
"Within the disability group, partially-sighted and blind people are the most underemployed," said Pilkington. "It's around 42 per cent employment for the disability group, whereas it's about 35 per cent for people living with sight loss. Many of them are living at or below the poverty line, and it's not because they don't have the skills, but there are a lot of misconceptions out there."
Advocacy and education are major pillars of the CNIB's mandate when it comes to getting people with sight loss out into the workforce, and Pilkington says that employers often don't realize how easy it is to accommodate an employee who is living with sight loss.
"Often it's as simple as making sure someone has the appropriate software on their computer and it's not really a barrier at all," said Pilkington. "Our big, lofty goals are to break down those societal barriers that stand in the way of people achieving their goals and dreams."
To learn more about the CNIB, visit www.cnib.ca.
