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Awareness

The Awareness Program has many components- awareness and education of the issues of the blind to the general public such as White Cane Week(TM) and the pervasiveness and impact of blindness on an unsuspecting general population including all levels of government; constant flow of information with CCB members; and finally, a continuous dialogue with our associate members.

General Public
Across Canada there are over 666,000 persons who are blind or visually impaired. 82% of the population over age 65 in Canada now encounter vision problems with another 2.1 million between ages 43 to 75 affected by blindness or irreversible vision loss. At one time or another, most families in Canada will be affected. Ophthalmologists in Canada contend that blindness or visual impairment is reaching epidemic proportions. Many of these instances can be cured or reversed.

Concurrent with prevention, The Blind Awareness Program seeks to bring the difficulty of accessibility of the blind further into the public consciousness with annual events such as White Cane Week(TM) and other educational programs for public transportation providers including taxi, airport, train and bus services.

CCB Members
The CCB provides a continuous dialogue with its members directly and/or through its chapters and divisions. Frequent discourse with members ensures an information flow for new and existing programs and activities. Just as important, in many cases, the affliction of blindness and the desolate darkness it creates can cause personal isolation. Communication and all types of interaction is an extremely important therapy whether by telephone, email, the CCB Internet site and the quarterly publication of the magazine, CCB Outlook(TM).

Support groups exist to assist persons with long-term vision loss and those with recent vision deficits primarily at the local level and extend to the national level. This may include interaction with mentoring groups with all ages of visually impaired persons and may comprise family members.

CCB Associate members
For associate sighted members, who are a core component of the CCB, it is extremely vital to communicate the activities of the CCB and the problems of accessibility, which vision loss and blindness produce. In addition to the CCB members, the associates are the “foot soldiers” for communication to the general public on the issues of blindness and the problem of accessibility for the blind.

It is a present and continuous objective of the CCB to expand and embrace the associate members who can carry and articulate the issues of vision awareness into their professions, work place and daily life. The CCB encourages the establishment of advisory committees at all levels as a forum for a constructive and permanent dialogue.

For more information, please contact us.