Increase understanding of blindness and dispel misconceptions about people who are blind, partially sighted, or Deafblind
Why it matters
Lack of awareness about the realities of life with blindness and sight loss is the underlying barrier that creates most of the issues for the people we serve across all parts of their lives – issues from lack of employment opportunities to accessibility barriers to unequal education experiences to social exclusion.
Our efforts
In order to change attitudes, we’ll use every tool in our arsenal – from mobilizing our community to pursuing legal action if we need to. Here are just a few of the tactics we’ll employ…
- Through large-scale, omnichannel marketing campaigns, increase awareness of the issues facing our community to promote a sense of societal investment in inclusion and equity, and to catalyze the dismantlement of longstanding barriers.
- “Influence the influencers” by establishing national guidelines for positive representation and inclusive language related to people with low vision, and promoting those guidelines among media, government, medical leaders, educators, and content creators.
- Implement a legal defense program to seek damages from businesses and corporations on behalf of people whose rights have been violated because of their sight loss, and support individuals in making human rights complaints themselves.
Intended impact
Our goal is to shift the mindset in Canada – where inclusivity is the norm, prejudice is a thing of the past, and accessibility is built into every part of our society.
- The average Canadian understands the importance of accessibility for people who are living with blindness or a loss of sight.
- Positive, inclusive language related to sight loss is embraced by the Canadian public, and is particularly embedded in key sectors such as education, health care, media, and government.
- Canadians with sight loss feel seen, heard, and represented in society in a more positive and fulsome way than ever before.