Welcome to Visionary

Visionary is a membership organisation for local sight loss charities. We are a locally led movement of national significance and, by joining Visionary, we believe that the voice of your organisation will be stronger and louder.

Our Vision is for a world in which people living with sight loss can access the services they need at a local level where and when they need them. Our Mission is to develop a strong national network of good quality local sight loss organisations, covering all parts of the UK, to help achieve this.

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Visionary Annual Conference 2018

 

Visionary Annual Conference 2018 

24 – 25 October 2018, Aston Conference Centre Birmingham

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Latest News

27 Jul

Second Sight#s Argus II

Second Sight’s Argus II The Argus II works by converting images captured by a miniature video camera mounted on the patient’s glasses into a series of small electrical pulses, which are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes implanted on the surface of the retina. These pulses stimulate the retina’s remaining cells, intending to result in the perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient must learn to interpret these visual patterns, having the potential to regain some visual function. “When I started to go blind I didn’t want to live anymore. Now I have hope.“ Jeroen Perk, 39, works for the Netherlands’ Customs & Excise. He is totally blind due to the genetic disease Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) diagnosed at the age of 11. Jeroen was the second person in the Netherlands to be implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, also known as “the bionic eye”. The surgery, by Dr Marco Mura, took place in June 2013. Since then, Jeroen has been using Argus II to help him navigate outdoors, in social situations such a rock concerts and when eating out, and has even been able to repeatedly hit the bullseye on an archery target. Jeroen […]

Latest News
27 Jul

Media Trust launches free training programme to develop the digital skills of charities across the UK

Media Trust launches free training programme to develop the digital skills of charities across the UK Media Trust has launched a new UK-wide digital skills training programme designed to help charities and community groups access the vital digital marketing training they need, in order to strengthen their communications capabilities and get their voices heard in a rapidly evolving digital world. The masterclasses will run from September 2018 until June 2019 and are free for charities and community organisations to attend. The half-day masterclasses will be delivered with support from Google Digital Garage and will cover a range of topics from Social Media Strategy to Building a Digital Marketing Plan. At each event, you will have an opportunity to discuss your specific digital communications challenges with, and receive advice from, media and communications experts, learn from other charities as well as receiving digital skills training from a team of Google mentors. If you want to develop your digital communications skills so you can more effectively raise the profile of your organisation, engage with your audiences and deliver successful online campaigns, then get involved. The following classes are now available: Birmingham 13 September Cardiff 20 September London 10 October Manchester 19 October […]

Latest News
19 Jun

Inspiring Impact update (June 2018):

Inspiring Impact update (June 2018): Since convening our pilot group back in 2017, Visionary has worked consistently with a core group of partners in order to develop this project to date. This core group consists of: Focus Birmingham, Sight Concern Bedfordshire, Devon in Sight, West London Vision, London Vision and we have been supported by expert colleagues at NCVO and New Philanthropy Capital in order to create the basis for this framework, share best practice and plan for the future adoption of this project across the sight-loss sector. The framework aims to develop a system for the sight loss sector to report on shared outcomes, shared service feedback and shared demographic information in order to understand the impact the sight loss sector is having across the UK on people’s lives. Throughout the process a number of new members have shown an interest in joining developments either now or through the testing and piloting or through adopting it on its completion. This is great as it means we will have an excellent cross section of members and service users to consult with, but it also means that throughout the membership, the number of partners who see the cross sector potential of […]

Latest News
22 May

In Your Pocket

I am a trustee of a small charity, Communication For Blind And Disabled People and our focus is new technologies for blind and partially sighted people. We are currently setting our store by In Your Pocket made by RealThing UK: www.inyourpocket.net. Pocket is based around a smartphone and you talk to it and listen to what you want to hear. ‘Where am I?’ when you are out in the street; ‘Play the archers’ any time of the day, anywhere; ‘Call home’ or any other contact you have set up using your voice and not poking about a complicated chattering screen. The device gets you to thousands of books, podcasts and magazines in the same way and, in the near future, it will contain your own local or national organisation talking news and information if you participate in its roll-out. Pocket is a huge breakthrough in technology and accessibility for blind and partially sighted people like me. Obviously, beware of sales talk with words like ‘simple’ and ‘life-changing’ but…mastering the screenreader on the PC or smartphone has tended to baffle all but the minority who are techy and nimble with their fingers and Pocket really does the business with the human […]

Latest News

Charity Locator

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Use our Charity Locator to find a member organisation near you.

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Development & Innovation Fund

DEVELOPMENT-INNOVATION road sign

The Visionary Development & Innovation Fund helps members make a difference to the lives of blind and partially sighted people.

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