Useful Links

Accredited Schools Online

Helping students with visual impairments. The website provides a guide with tips and resources for students with visual impairments to achieve success in schools, and was created in part by four experts in the field that draw on their experiences. The guide contains

  • an extended list of tips for choosing the right college,
  • an in-depth look at the top assistive technology and tools being used today,
  • additional scholarships available for students with visual impairments, and further valuable information.

Action for Blind People

A U.K. national organization that aims to ensure blind and partially sighted people receive practical support in all aspects of their lives.

American Council of the Blind

America’s leading membership organization of blind and partially sighted people. This website provides links to all major visually impaired associations, organizations and schools in the United States.

American Foundation for the Blind

Information on blindness, low vision and related issues.

Action on Disability and Development

Focuses on aspects for positive change.

Asian-Pacific Development Center on Disability

Promotes the empowerment of people with disabilities and a barrier-free society in developing countries in the Asia and Pacific Region.

A-Z to Deafblindness

A-Z information on deafblindness.

Assistive Technology

Directory on assistive technology and devices.

British Computer Association of the Blind (BCAB)

An organization of visually impaired people who use Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

CBM International

Acts upon the needs and rights of people with disabilities.

College & Career Guide for Students with Disabilities

College students with disabilities have rights that allow for specific accommodations to help them succeed in school. Learn about legal protections, scholarships, technologies, and other assistance available to students with disabilities.

This offers in-depth information in several areas, including:

  • Legal rights of students with disabilities
  • Services colleges can or need to make available
  • Required accommodations for students
  • Technologies and helpful apps for students
  • Financial aid and scholarships for students with disabilities

Dancing Dots

Serves blind musicians and their educators through technology and training.

Dark and Light Foundation

Dark and Light Blind Care is a Christian foundation for helping visually impaired people in Africa and Asia, especially children, through projects for prevention, treatment, education and vocational training.

Deafblind International

Deafblind International (DbI) is the world association promoting services for deafblind people.

Disability Access Charter

Assists to raise standards in access for everyone.

Disability Alliance

A U.K. registered charity with the principal aim of relieving the poverty and improving the living standards of disabled people, and an eventual goal of breaking the link between poverty and disability.

Disability Alliance of Voluntary Organisations (DAVO)

An information sharing platform of voluntary organizations involved in providing services to persons with disabilities.

Disability World

A unique international online magazine (e-zine) dedicated to advancing and exchanging information and expertise about the international independent living movement of people with disabilities.

Disability World Directory

Established to find relevant information and act as a comprehensive directory of information and websites for the disabled both within the U.K. and Internationally.

Guide Dogs

Provides guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially-sighted people.

Helenkeller International

Helen Keller International (HKI) is among the oldest international non-profit organizations devoted to fighting and treating preventable blindness and malnutrition.

ICEVI

International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) is a global association of individuals and organizations that promotes equal access to appropriate education for all children and youth with visual impairment so that they may achieve their full potential.

International Agency for Prevention of Blindness

IAPB was established as a coordinating umbrella organization to lead an international effort in mobilizing resources for blindness prevention activities.

International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA)

Seeks to achieve the full integration of the blind and visually impaired through sport at all levels.

International Disability and Development Consortium

IDDC is a self-managing group, currently consisting of 16 international non-government organizations, that supports disability and development work in over 100 countries globally.

ISLRR

International Society for Low-vision Research and Rehabilitation consists of people from a variety of disciplines who work in the field of research and development for rehabilitation of people with vision impairment.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Aims to provide the latest news on issues affecting persons with disabilities in Japan and overseas, details of training courses, and other information.

Lions Club International

Lions are an international network of 1.3 million men and women in 202 countries and geographic areas who work together to address challenges to communities around the world.

Lighthouse International

Assists in enabling people of all ages who are blind or partially sighted to lead independent and productive lives.

Low Vision Online

Designed for people who know or work with someone with low vision, with the aim to give an understanding of low vision.

National Federation of the Blind

The largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States, it seeks to improve blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence.

NGO Committee on Unicef

A worldwide network of 125 international NGOs working on behalf of children in over 110 countries, and is currently based in New York and Geneva.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world.

Organizations for Visually Impaired

Agencies, centres, organizations and societies for the visually impaired.

ORBIS International

A non-profit organization fighting blindness in developing countries, where 90 percent of the blind reside.

Perkins School for the Blind

An innovative leader in serving people with visual impairments.

Royal National Institute for the Blind

The U.K.’s leading charity offering information, support and advice to over two million people with sight loss.

RNIB Scientific Research Unit’s Website, Tiresias

Provides guidelines on accessibility issues for all types of disabilities, for designers of information and communication technology (ICT) systems. It also offers in-depth information on assistive devices and agencies for blind and partially sighted people, current and future research, as well as information about tactile reading.

Sight Savers International

Works to combat blindness in developing countries, and restoring sight through specialist treatment and eye care. It also supports people who are irreversibly blind by providing education, counseling and training, and has a main focus on those living in poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Soundscapes from the Voice

Seeing with your ears is designed as a step towards a vision substitution device for the blind through the real-time conversion of arbitrary images into soundscapes.

The Foundation Fighting Blindness

FFB is a U.S. foundation driving research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by retinitis pigmentosa (RP), macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.

UNESCO

Deploys efforts in the fields of education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information as the means to a far more ambitious goal: to build peace in the minds of men and women.

UNICEF

Aims to achieve for every child – health, education, equality, protection, and advancement of humanity.

United Nations Convention

Documents on Persons with Disabilities.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The UN’s global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

VisionConnection.org

Vision information and an accessible community for people who are partially sighted or blind.

World Bank and Disability

The World Bank finances development projects involving disability components in areas such as education, health care, infrastructure, employment, de-institutionalization, and children & youth. It also works in a wide variety of disability-related fields, including data collection and statistics, research and analysis, technical assistance and knowledge sharing.

World Blind Union

A non-political, non-religious, non-governmental and non-profit-making organization which has consultative status within the UN Agencies and ECOSOC. It is the only organization entitled to speak on behalf of blind and partially sighted persons of the world, and represents 162 million blind and visually impaired persons from about 600 different organizations in 158 countries.

World Health Organisation

The directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system, and is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries, and monitoring and assessing health trends.