 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(May 2022) |
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| Formation | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-governmental organisation |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Victoria |
Region | Australia |
| Ron Hooton | |
| Website | www |
Vision Australia is a not-for-profit organization and Australia's largest provider of services for people with blindness and low vision.
Vision Australia was created in 2004 through the merger of the Royal Blind Society (RBS), the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB), Vision Australia Foundation (VAF), and the National Information Library Services (NILS) in July 2004. [1] At the time, legislation needed to be passed through the parliaments of Victoria and New South Wales for this to occur. [2] [3] [4] [5] In 2006, the organisation was further expanded with the merger of the Royal Blind Foundation Queensland. This merger enabled greater access to the organisation across Queensland. [6] Additionally, 2007 saw Hear a Book, a producer of audio books in Tasmania, join Vision Australia in November 2007. [1] In February 2008 it was announced that the Seeing Eye Dogs Australia (SEDA) would also merge with Vision Australia by the end of June 2008. [7] The inclusion of guide dog services meant that Vision Australia was now a national provider to the blindness and low vision community of assistive services.
The Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB) was established in 1866 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The original building, in its Gothic Revival style, was designed by architects Crouch and Wilson and completed in 1868. [8] However, it was later demolished and a new building, Ormond Hall for the Blind named after its benefactor Francis Ormond, was built in 1891 based on designs procured by Nathaniel Billing & Son. [9] Designed by J D McLean of the Public Works Department, the new building was extended in the following years leading to 1933. [9]
The Royal Victorian Institute of the Blind operated a school in Burwood from 1959 to 2009. [10]
The Ormond Hall wing was originally established as a music hall for the blind and is run by the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind.
Notable staff of the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind include:
Life time governors of the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind include:
Vice-presidents of the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind include:
Presidents of the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind include:
The following blindness and low vision services are listed on the Vision Australia website: [11]
The history of Vision Australia's founding organisations go back to the late 1800s and cover much of the struggle for better rights and services for Australia's blind and low vision community. [13]
Given this long history, Vision Australia has a very extensive heritage collection including many objects and images pertaining to the story and history of the blindness community in Australia. [14] [15] [16] [17]
Some of the heritage collection can be search and viewed in Victorian Collections
Vision Australia's Carols by Candlelight is the organisation's leading fundraising and awareness campaign and is an Australian Christmas tradition. Dating back to 1938, it is held on Christmas Eve at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne and reaches a television audience of more than 2 million Australians each year.
All proceeds from this event go towards Vision Australia's Children's Services.
Performers at this event have included Rolf Harris, Hugh Jackman, Tina Arena, John Farnham, Debra Byrne, Olivia Newton-John, Lee Kernaghan, Judith Durham, Marina Prior, Denis Walter, Douglas Heywood, Silvie Paladino, Hi-5, Humphrey B Bear, Mickey Mouse, Anthony Callea and long-time host Ray Martin.
Other supporters of this concert include Myer, Nine Network, Disney, 3AW, Magic 1278 and The Herald Sun.
DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information System. It is a format based on the W3C defined SGML applications XHTML 1.0 and SMIL 1.0. Using this framework, a talking book format is presented that enables navigation within a sequential and hierarchical structure consisting of (marked-up) text synchronized with audio.
Vision Australia is currently in the process of digitising and updating its entire library catalogue to the DAISY format for the benefit of its clients. Vision Australia is listed as a member of the DAISY Consortium. [18]
One of the issues associated with digitising the existing library is managing the massive amounts of computer storage that it will require. At present Vision Australia has a 40-terabyte library that can be scaled to 100 terabytes. Ultimately the organization's goal is to have its library available as online downloads for its community. [19] [20]
A major success for Vision Australia's Policy and Advocacy department was the introduction of electronic voting (or E-voting) at the Victoria State Elections in 2007. For the first time in Australian history, people who were blind were able to vote in secrecy and independently. The Victorian Electoral Commission's e-voting system was set up in response to submissions for electoral reform by Vision Australia and Blind Citizens Australia. [21]
Vision Australia's Information Library Service is listed in the National Library of Australia Catalogue. [22] Vision Australia is also a member of Vision 2020 [23] and the DAISY Consortium. [18]
Vision Australia has signed Memorandums of Understanding with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (Canada) and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (UK).
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The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people in the UK with sight loss. The charity affords practical and emotional support to those affected by sight issues and acts as an advocacy body.
The City of Glen Eira is a local government area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of 39 square kilometres (15.06 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 153,858.
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia.
Ormond College is one of the largest residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents.
Francis Ormond was a Scottish-born Australian pastoralist, member of the Parliament of Victoria and philanthropist in the areas of education and religion.
Matilda Ann Aston, better known as Tilly Aston, was a blind Australian writer and teacher, who founded the Victorian Association of Braille Writers, and later went on to establish the Association for the Advancement of the Blind, with herself as secretary. She is remembered for her achievements in promoting the rights of vision-impaired people.
Carols by Candlelight is an annual Australian Christmas tradition that was popularised in Melbourne in 1938. The tradition has since spread around the world. It involves people gathering, usually outdoors in a park, to sing carols by candlelight, featuring live performances by both national and international celebrities accompanied by a symphony orchestra.
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct. It was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, on 12 February 1959, with an audience of 30,000 people. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
The CNIB Foundation is a Canadian charitable organization and volunteer agency dedicated to assisting Canadians who are blind or living with vision loss, and to provide information about vision health for all Canadians. Founded in 1918 as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to assist soldiers who had been blinded in the First World War, CNIB originally offered sheltered care and specialized employment to people with vision loss. It has since expanded to include other programs and services, including research, public education, rehabilitation counselling and training, advocacy and an alternative-format library for people living with a print disability. It is a member of the Braille Authority of North America.
Digital accessible information system (DAISY) is a technical standard for digital audiobooks, periodicals, and computerized text. DAISY is designed to be a complete audio substitute for print material and is specifically designed for use by people with "print disabilities", including blindness, impaired vision, and dyslexia. Based on the MP3 and XML formats, the DAISY format has advanced features in addition to those of a traditional audio book. Users can search, place bookmarks, precisely navigate line by line, and regulate the speaking speed without distortion. DAISY also provides aurally accessible tables, references, and additional information. As a result, DAISY allows visually impaired listeners to navigate something as complex as an encyclopedia or textbook, otherwise impossible using conventional audio recordings.
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.
Accessible publishing is an approach to publishing and book design whereby books and other texts are made available in alternative formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. It is particularly relevant for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.
The Melbourne City campus of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is located in the city centre of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is sometimes referred to as "RMIT City" and the "RMIT Quarter" of the city in the media.
Margaret Josephine Nisbett MBE was an Australian coloratura soprano.
Kathleen Maltzahn is an Australian author, academic and anti-sex work activist. She is a former councillor for the City of Yarra and was the Australian Greens Victoria candidate for the state seat of Richmond in the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Victorian elections.
RoboBraille is a web and email service capable of converting documents into a range of accessible formats including Braille, mp3, e-books and Daisy. The service can furthermore be used to convert otherwise inaccessible documents such as scanned images and pdf files into more accessible formats. RoboBraille has been in operation since 2004 and currently serves thousands of user requests each month from users around the world. The service is available for free for strictly individual, non-commercial use. Institutional use by academic institutions is available through SensusAccess.
Launch Housing is a secular Melbourne-based community organisation that delivers homelessness services and housing supports to disadvantaged Victorians.
The Australian College of Optometry (ACO) is an Australian non-profit working to improving the eye health and well-being of various Australian communities. Established in 1940, the ACO's goal is to deliver public health optometry, vision research and professional education.
Mitra Jyothi established in 1990, is a charitable trust registered under Indian Trust Act based in Bangalore. Its aims to support the visually impaired through various programs it offers. These programs include Talking Book Library, Computer Training Center, Independent Living Skills, Braille Transcription Center and Job Placement. It received State Award in 2010 from the Directorate of Disabled Welfare and Senior Citizens, Government of Karnataka for its exemplary service for persons with disabilities. Mitra Jyothi is also a member of the DAISY Forum of India (DFI). DFI is a forum of Not for profit organizations from India who are involved in production of books and reading materials in accessible formats for persons who cannot read normal print.
Sidney Baillieu Myer, also known as Bails Myer, was an Australian businessman and philanthropist. A member of the Myer family retailing dynasty, he was the son of Sidney and Merlyn Myer. He joined his family's company, the Myer Emporium, in 1949 and became its chairman in 1983. He oversaw its merger with GJ Coles & Coy to create Coles Myer and retired from business in 1994. In his later life, Myer was involved with philanthropic, scientific and arts organisations.
