| Canadian National Institute For the Blind
Tueday, February 27, 2007
Canadian National Institute For the Blind R. Cantelon: This morning I attended a breakfast hosted by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, with many of my colleagues. Founded in 1918, the CNIB is a nationwide community-based charity that is committed to research, education and vision health for all Canadians. The CNIB is able to provide these services due to the generosity of the general public as well as corporate donations and funding from different levels of government. The staff and volunteers of CNIB work with those who have visual impairments to assist them in adapting to their loss of vision so that they may be comfortable and confident in functioning in their work and home environments. Degradation of vision, even vision loss, is something that will likely touch the life of someone we know. One out of nine people of retirement age experiences degenerative loss of sight, and that number jumps to one in every four people over 80, which happens to be the fastest-growing demographic in British Columbia. It is important to remember that only 10 percent of all the people CNIB work with have no sight. The overwhelming majority have some vision. In fact, our hosts provided us with a piece of paper that you could hold up to your eye and experience a sample of what some people are able to see — or not see, as the case is. It was a very interesting learning experience that certainly gave me a better idea of the challenges that the vision-impaired face, and I ask the House to join me and thank the B.C. and Yukon branch for all the hard work they do in assisting the visually impaired. | |
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