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WORLD BLIND UNIONChanging What It Means to be Blind

QUADRENNIAL REPORT2009 – 2012

www.worldblindunion.org

http://www.worldblindunion.org/

Message from the PresidentBy Maryanne Diamond

The term has been one of hard work and achievement. Our permanent headquarters, The Office of the World Blind Union, has been in place for all of the term. Under the leadership of Dr Penny Hartin, the administration of the organisation has been transformed. This is evidenced by the standard of our communications, regular contact to the office by members and interested individuals and organisations and the planning and coordination of our work. This report presents our work in line with the strategic plan which we have used to guide our work for the term.

The leadership of the WBU met late 2008 to develop our plan for the term. To assist us in developing a comprehensive, challenging but achievable plan, we used the following sources of information: strategic plan 2005 – 2008, resolutions adopted at the 7th general assembly as well as those passed at prior Assemblies but which had not been completed, work underway from the last term and identified issues and trends which would impact on the lives of persons who are blind in the coming years.

We introduced the production of annual reports for each of the years in this quadrennium. These have proven to be extremely successful and have been extensively used by members and leaders to promote and inform about the work of the WBU and encourage support from donors and others.

In 2009, we celebrated the by-centenary of the birth of Louis braille in many creative and interesting ways. A major event which took place as part of the celebrations of the bi-centenary was the awarding of the WBU Louis Braille medal to Dr Euclid Herie at Coupvray France in June 2009 as part of the International conference hosted by the French Association of the Blind. Dr. Herie was the unanimous choice for this special awarding of the Louis Braille Medal in recognition of his many years of service to the WBU as well as his continued support of braille literacy in

WBU Quadrennial Report 2009 – 2012 2

developing countries through the World Braille Foundation which he established when he retired. We re-established the world braille council; held a successful conference Braille21; we developed a CRPD toolkit for members; and with support from CBM we engaged an advocacy coordinator to assist with our advocacy and CRPD work.

We embarked on an initiative to address the unemployment rate of persons who are blind around the world which is a long term program. One step to achieving this has been the establishment of a global employment resource bank.

We have made huge progress with our right to read campaign to achieve the same book, at the same time and at the same price. Our work with WIPO has progressed well and we remain hopeful that it will yield a legally binding treaty which will allow books produced in an alternate format in one country to be shared with people who are blind, partially sighted or print disabled in another country.

Our collaborations and partnerships has strengthen and grown. The establishment of Vision Alliance bringing together ICEVI, IABP and WBU to work together adding value to each other’s work and working to ensure there is a clear pathway from prevention, treatment, education, rehabilitation, empowerment and capacity building of blind persons will, ensure people who are blind are able to find and receive the services they require. I would like to acknowledge and thank those organisations who have provided additional support to our operations and work. To members I would like to thank you for your contribution and work within your countries and regions.

A special thanks to the leadership team of the WBU this term: our table officers, regional presidents and executive members, thank you for your support, hard work and contributions in making it possible to achieve what we have.


It has been an honour and privilege to lead the WBU this term. I have learned a great deal and met and worked with many wonderful people around the world. I am totally committed to our movement and to what we as a collective can achieve by working together to change what it means to be blind for millions of persons who are blind around the world.

Introduction

The purpose of the WBU Quadrennial Report 2009 – 2012 is to consolidate and reflect on the work undertaken by and the achievements realized by the World Blind Union during the period since the last General Assembly in 2008. A principle objective of the report is to inform the membership of the WBU about the work that has been undertaken at the global level and will form the basis of many of the discussions that will take place at the General Assembly. It is also hoped that this Quadrennial report will prove to be a useful reference document and resource for our members and for those interested in our work as it presents who the WBU is, where and how we work, the issues that are important to blind and partially sighted persons around the world and demonstrates the progress that can be made through collective action.

In compiling this quadrennial report, we have attempted to reflect the major work that has gone on during the past four years in the achievement of our Strategic Plan. In doing so, we have tried to incorporate the work of WBU committees, working groups and networks and that of the regions.

As was the case at the General Assembly in 2008, this Quadrennial Report is the consolidation of committee, working group, network and regional reports. It will be translated and make available in accessible formats to the participants of the General Assembly and will be a permanent record of our work on the WBU website. The individual reports that have been submitted will also be available for download from the WBU website for those interested in more detailed information. However, it was our experience in 2008 that our members found this consolidated quadrennial report to be helpful and


informative. We hope that our members will find that to be the case this time as well.

Members will notice that the format of this quadrennial report is similar to that used for our Annual Reports. Indeed, the annual reports that we have produced each year during this term have reported on our achievement of the strategic plan for a particular year; this quadrennial report will similarly report on our progress within the strategic plan over the full four year term. It has been a real pleasure to consolidate this information as our achievements have been many. We can justifiably be proud of what has been accomplished over the course of the last four years. While there is of course much more that needs to be done, we can be proud of what we have achieved so far and the foundation that has been laid for our future work.

Respectfully submittedDr. Penny HartinChief Executive OfficerEditor of the Quadrennial Report

Our Work During December 2008, the newly elected WBU Officers, supported by a number of resource persons, met to develop the Strategic Plan that would govern the work of the Union for the 2009 to 2012 period. This strategic plan was operationalized through the development of a detailed workplan which articulated objectives, initiatives and action plans for each of the identified priority areas. The achievement of this workplan formed the basis of the agenda for each Officers meeting; annual status updates were prepared and documented and we reported on our progress via annual reports to the membership. The following pages will provide an overview of the priorities that were identified and our work in advancing those priorities throughout the four year term. While this report does focuses primarily on initiatives undertaken at the global level we have attempted to reflect the work of our Regions in the achievement of our objectives as well. Our six Regions are very active in the achievement of these strategies and we refer members to the specific regional reports for more information about their specific activities.


Our VisionThe WBU has adopted a pyramid Vision structure which reflects our Vision of what we would hope to achieve within a twenty year timeframe as well as our Vision for this strategic planning cycle which is four years.

Our long term, twenty year Vision is:

A community where people who are blind or partially sighted are empowered to participate on an equal basis in any aspect of life they choose.

Our short term, four year Vision, had three ladders that together would move us towards the realization of our long term vision. These three Vision ladders are:

1. That WBU is recognized as the authentic voice representing blind and partially sighted persons at the international level

2. That our members at all levels have the capacity and capability to deliver their programs

3. That the WBU is recognized as an international source of information in matters related to vision impairment

Strategic Priority 1: RepresentationStrategic Priority Leaders: Ajai Kumar Mittal, Treasurer andWilliam Rowland, Past PresidentPromoting full participation and equal opportunities for blind and partially sighted persons in all aspects of social, economic, political and cultural life

Working towards a world accessible to blind and partially sighted persons


The issue of accessibility is very far-reaching and complex for blind and partially sighted persons. It ranges from access to information, to the built environment, to products and services to transportation and so forth. And there are many opportunities for us to be engaged to improve access for blind and partially sighted persons. Clearly with such a huge scope for involvement, it was considered essential that the WBU focus our efforts. During this past four years, our efforts have focused on access to information, mobility & transportation and access to technology. A good deal of progress has been made in each of these areas under the leadership of Christopher Friend from Sightsavers.

Right to Read

The Right to Read Campaign, whose objective is to dramatically improve access to printed material for persons with a print disability, was officially launched during the last quadrennium, but it would be fair to say, gained huge momentum during this present quadrennium. Particularly following the tabling of a Treaty for the Visually Impaired, now called the WBU Treaty, by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay at the WIPO SCCR (Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights) meeting in May 2009.

Since 2008, the Right to Read Team has attended a number of meetings at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to advance the R2R campaign. These have included: 4 WIPO General Assemblies; 9 Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meetings, and several additional Stakeholder Platform and inter-sessional meetings. In addition to the core Right to Read team; many of our WBU national members have also participated in meetings at WIPO and in their own countries to advance the treaty. The focus of this work has been on moving the proposed treaty closer to acceptance by WIPO members.

While progress has been made, we have also faced challenges to advance this objective. We continue to face resistance from publishers as well as from certain countries who would prefer to have a voluntary instrument rather than a treaty which is legally binding on those countries that ratify it. While there has been much pressure on the WBU to accept a non-binding instrument, we have maintained our firm position that a binding treaty is required in order to truly effect the change that is needed. The SCCR meetings scheduled for July 2012 will be critical to moving this forward and our desired outcome is that the WIPO General Assembly, which will be held in October 2012, will call for a diplomatic conference to be


held in 2013 to review a binding treaty instrument. We are pleased that the Director General of WIPO has accepted an invitation to speak at the General Assembly in Bangkok in November of 2012.

A number of our WBU Regions have also been very active in supporting the Right 2 Read Campaign and there is no question that these activities have strengthened our impact globally. Some of the Regional initiatives include the development of Right to Read committees in India, the United Kingdom, several countries in Latin America.

Mobility & Transportation

While it would be fair to say that we have not achieved as much as we had hoped in the area of mobility and transportation, nonetheless, we have made some important advances.

With respect to silent vehicles, some good progress has been made in achieving recognition of the safety issue imposed by silent vehicles: Advocacy work has been undertaken in several countries, most notably Japan and Italy, with several car manufacturers now recognizing the need for adaptations; Legislation regarding hybrid cars has also been passed in some countries. WBU has voiced our concerns re silent vehicles to the international regulatory body dealing with the issue, calling for mandatory and consistent standards and we have been represented at meetings dealing with the development of these proposed regulations. Clearly though, this is an ongoing issue as more silent/hybrid cars are introduced to the marketplace without the imposition of mandatory sound standards.

Work was also undertaken during the quadrennium with an ISO committee on the redevelopment of Tactile Walking Surface Indicators; a new standard was agreed by the working group in 2010 and was subsequently voted on by ISO member countries.

One of our initiatives had also been to undertake measures to improve access to air travel for blind and partially sighted travellers. We contacted the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is the UN organization responsible for setting air transport standards. They were very receptive to our issues and we worked with the International Disability Alliance and other IDA members to provide input to ICAO which has subsequently revised its guidelines and manual. It will now be up to our members to work with their governments and airlines in their countries to ensure that these new standards are followed since we continue to hear about many examples of blind persons who are not allowed to board their flights.


The WBU was invited to present a paper at the International Mobility Conference held in New Zealand in February 2012 and were subsequently invited to submit this paper for publication in their international journal.

Access to Technology

The field of technology is very extensive and rapidly changing these days. The WBU has tremendous opportunities for input and we believe that through our technology working group we have made some significant progress. When undertaking its work for this quadrennial period, the technology working group felt it was important to focus its time and resources on three specific areas of work so as to maximize the impact of our interventions. These three areas of work were:

1. Improving access to TV and film2. Improving access to technology in developing countries3. Improving access to mobile devices.

The Technology working group has made some important progress in each of these areas:

Significant progress has been achieved in the area of improving access to television and film for blind and partially sighted persons through interventions with TV manufacturers and research work undertaken by RNIB and other working group members. This has included providing support to members and broadcasters from a number of countries looking at audio description on TV and film. Significant work has also been done on the development, sharing of and advocacy for standards for accessible TV and film and the standardization of the audio description process. Audio description guidelines have now been published by the WBU on our website with support from RNIB. In addition, commercial talking TV/set top boxes are now available in several countries.

The technology working group has worked closely with RNIB’s Techshare program to enhance access to technology for developing countries. Techshare organized a number of exhibitions in developing countries during the quadrennium, of particular note being Techshare India in 2010 and a Techshare exhibition at the IDP Africa Forum in Ghana in 2011. Furthermore, most of the WBU Regional Unions also organized technology exhibitions during their General Assemblies and there will be a large technology exhibition as part of the WBU General Assembly in Bangkok in November of


2012. Many of our member organizations also hold technology exhibitions as part of their national conventions, training conferences and so forth in order to bring technology closer to our members.

In addition to the promotion of technology exhibitions, we work closely with other organizations that are also working on enhancing accessibility for blind and partially sighted persons. Of note are recent developments within the DAISY Consortium, which now merges the Daisy standard with E-Pub standard, will enhance accessibility even more. The WBU Technology working group has also worked with the Accessible Design Foundation of Japan and the WBU has designated a representative to the ISO (International Standards Organization) working group dealing with the accessible design of products, including braille labelling on products and the use of braille signage.

As mentioned earlier, a key initiative within our technology working group during this past quadrennium was to enhance the accessibility and useability of mobile technology. We have seen tremendous progress in this area during these past four years. Of particular note are the new Apple iPhone, iTouch and iPad products which are fully accessible “out of the box”. A number of other accessible smartphones are also becoming available as well. It is our belief that accessible mobile telephone technology will dramatically improve accessibility for blind and partially sighted persons in an affordable way given that applications for talking books, GPS wayfinding and other productivity tools are becoming integrated into mobile technology and are becoming increasingly accessible.

These developments do, however, require constant vigilance and advocacy on our part to ensure that accessibility is built into the mainstream devices and applications. We have faced recent advocacy issues related to products like the Kindle Reader which remain inaccessible to blind and partially sighted persons and for which authors can continue to turn off the text to speech mode. And while it is true that much more material is now available electronically, the devices needed to read these books often remain inaccessible and financially out of reach by many blind and partially sighted persons. So we are extremely pleased with the advances that have been made, but we know that this will continue to require our ongoing attention.


Representing blind and partially sighted persons at the United Nations and UN Agencies

The WBU has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and as such has the opportunity to participate in many sessions at the UN and its agencies. The WBU has taken advantage of these opportunities and has been active with many of the UN agencies throughout the term. Some highlights of our participation over the quadrennium include the following:

The WBU was represented at all meetings of the CRPD monitoring committee that have been held during the term; we made special interventions to the two General Days of discussion organized by the CRPD committee in 2009 and 2010 and we have been present at the annual Conference of States/Parties held in New York regarding the CRPD implementation.

Through the support of CBM, the WBU has now been able to hire an Advocacy Coordinator (effective March 2012) who has begun to assist the WBU and our members to respond to the opportunities that are available regarding the implementation and monitoring of the CRPD and other UN instruments.

We worked closely with the World Health Organization regarding the Vision 2020 program and the development and launch of the World Disability Report and the CBR Guidelines and attended a number of launch events related to the World Disability Report. We also submitted our triennial report to the WHO as well as our quadrennial report to ECOSOC, both of which have been accepted. The WBU and ICEVI also collaborated on a statement to the ECOSOC High level meeting held in July 2011 dealing with Inclusive Education and the WBU submitted another statement to the ECOSOC High Level meeting held in July 2012 dealing with employment.

Lord Colin Low has continued to represent WBU at the Universal Postal Union (UPU) meetings to advance discussions regarding the modernization of the “free post for the blind” provision, which we hope will be presented to the UPU General Assembly to take place in October 2012 for adoption.

Our work with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) is ongoing, as described above, as we work towards agreement of a Treaty to improve access to the printed word for blind, partially sighted and other print disabled persons.

The WBU also participates in joint responses on issues in collaboration with the International Disability Alliance which has


staff to undertake the research and background work on behalf of the IDA member organizations. It is up to WBU, however, to develop responses and messaging related to blindness and partial sight, which we are increasingly able to do with the addition of our Advocacy Coordinator.

Discussions have been held with representatives from ILO in order to become more active with them and the WBU President attended the ILO General Congress in 2010 and also represented the IDA at a special ILO meeting bringing together representatives from the business sectors.

We have continued to support the UNESCO Flagship program for Education for all and have had representatives at their planning meetings in 2009 and 2011. It would be fair to say, however, that this UNESCO flagship has not been as effective as we would have hoped.

The Chair of the Children’s Network has represented the WBU on the UNICEF NGO committee on Children with Disabilities and played a major role representing the needs of children with disabilities at a number of UNICEF events at the UN.

There are of course other involvements that the WBU has enjoyed with UN Agencies. This review of our UN activity is intended to convey the work that is ongoing within a number of UN agencies to ensure that the needs and views of blind and partially sighted persons are advanced. It would also be fair to say that there has generally been a new openness among UN agencies to our involvement and that of other DPO’s. This would likely be in part due to the coming into force of the UNCRPD which has started a paradigm shift to a more human rights based approach on the part of these organizations and has created an imperative for them to work closely with us. It is then up to us to take advantage of these opportunities and to provide that representation which is so very important.

Advocating for human rights of blind and partially sighted persons

A Human Rights and Advocacy working group was established, and through its efforts, the WBU has attempted to advocate on behalf of members facing difficult situations. Some of these situations included the need for food and emergency assistance following the 2010 floods in Pakistan, the plight of blind persons in Afghanistan and several interventions related to the killing of persons with Albinism in Eastern Africa. We have addressed our concerns to the UN and other


international bodies as well as to National governments. We have however, been disappointed with their lack of response to the issues we have raised and it will thus be important for us to identify other advocacy strategies in these situations.

As a result of several natural disasters that took place during 2010, some requests were made to WBU members to provide assistance to members in countries that were particularly affected. These included interventions related to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the floods in Pakistan. There was also the flooding in Thailand in 2011 and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan that affected our members. As a consequence of the impact of these disasters, the WBU has developed a position statement on our response to situations of emergency and disaster in member countries. While there is consensus that the WBU does not have the expertise or resources to be a first response organization, there is a role that we can play to ensure that first-response organizations are better equipped meet the needs of blind and partially sighted persons and are responsive to those needs. As a consequence, we have begun work with other Vision Alliance members to develop an advocacy strategy to ensure that mainstream aid organizations are better equipped to meet the needs of blind and partially sighted persons affected by these disasters.

Supporting our members to implement the CRPD at the national level

At the time of the last General Assembly in 2008, the UNCRPD had just come into force and only a small number of countries had ratified the Convention. The last four years have seen remarkable progress in the ratification, implementation and monitoring of the UNCRPD and it holds promise to effect significant positive change for blind and partially sighted and other persons with disabilities around the world. Blind and partially sighted persons played a major role in the development of the UNCRPD, and they have continued to do so; five of the first 12 members elected to the UNCRPD Monitoring Committee were blind persons and the present Chair of that committee is a blind person from Australia. The following are some other highlights of relevance to the CRPD. As of July 9th 2012, 153 countries have signed the Convention on

the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 116 countries have ratified


the Convention, 90 countries have signed the “Optional Protocol” and 66 countries have ratified the “Optional Protocol”.

As part of our efforts to assist our members to better understand the ratification, implementation and monitoring processes, the WBU has produced a CRPD toolkit. In addition to providing basic information about the CRPD and other relevant UN instruments, this toolkit also provides specific information about the implications of the CRPD for blind and partially sighted persons and also brings together a variety of resources from a number of other sources. It is available from the WBU website or from the WBU Office or Advocacy Coordinator. The Advocacy Coordinator has also developed a summary version of the toolkit which will be translated and which will provide a more concise reference for our members..

We also conducted a study related to the CRPD in a number of African countries, with the assistance of the African Union of the Blind and funded by the Open Society Institute foundation of the Soros Foundation. The purpose of the project was to research the availability and suitability of mainstream CRPD training resources in Africa. The study revealed that while mainstream resources are willing to include blind/partially sighted participants in their general human rights training programs, they need support and training to do that.

We have begun the process of establishing Regional CRPD networks with National CRPD champions to support the work of our national members. It is hoped that these Regional CRPD coordinators and national Champions will work closely with our new Advocacy Coordinator who was engaged in early 2012 with the generous support of CBM and has already begun to work with our national members to help strengthen their capacity with respect to their CRPD implementation and monitoring efforts.

The European Blind Union organized a seminar: "Making the UN Convention Work for Visually Impaired Women" in Cyprus in 2010 with 54 participants from 19 member organisations,

The Asian Blind Union conducted workshops on Advocacy and the UNCRPD for its members on a sub-regional basis and conducted country workshops in four ABU countries. In addition, the ABU made the UNCRPD its topic of focus for its Regional Conference held immediately before the ABU 2012 General Assembly.

Strategic Priority 2: Capacity Building


Strategic Priority Leaders: Arnt Holte, 1st Vice President and Frances Candiru, 2nd Vice PresidentStrengthening the capabilities and capacity of the WBU regional structures and member organisations

Improving employment opportunities for blind and partially sighted persons

A key initiative undertaken this term, and led by President Maryanne Diamond has focused on improving the employment situation faced by blind and partially sighted persons. Traditionally, blind and partially sighted persons have had one of the lowest employment rates compared to the general population and even compared to other disability groups. This situation exists in both developed and developing countries and the employment rate has not changed much over time despite improved social attitudes, education opportunities and technological advances. The Employment working group undertook a number of initiatives during the past four years to begin to address this issue.

In June 2009, an Employment summit was held, hosted by RNIB in the UK and at which there were over 25 participants from all WBU regions, those with employment expertise and from international organizations including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNESCO. The Summit helped to identify the key issues and areas of focus and from that summit, a working group was established to advance the work.

The working group subsequently elaborated a strategy that comprised four key initiatives: the collection of case studies, the development of an employment resource bank, documentation for peer support/mentoring programs, and initiatives related to micro-enterprise/income generating projects. We have begun the collection of the case studies and that will continue.

In addition, through the support of the Trillium Foundation in Ontario Canada, we received the funding to establish a web based employment resource bank which is being developed in cooperation with the CNIB in Canada. The resource bank, which is currently in the process of development, will contain very useful tools for persons seeking employment, for educators, service providers, and family members and for potential employers. It is expected that the resource bank will be launched prior to the General Assembly in Bangkok.


Working with Lions International, we have been notified that a project has been approved under the Sight First program of Lions International, to work with WBU member AICB in India on the Micro Credit program.

We have also worked closely with the Hadley School for the Blind in the development of their Executive leadership course; have helped to recruit some international students to that program and have also sat on the Advisory Board for the Hadley Forsythe Institute for Entrepreneurship – a program developed by Hadley to support those who wish to establish their own small businesses.

The European Blind Union Youth Steering Group hosted a conference entitled: "Harnessing New ICT's as a Means to Ease the Job Inclusion of Visually Impaired Youth" in Slovak Republic in 2009. There were 68 participants from 19 countries.

The Latin America Union of the Blind has implemented its AGORA project to improve the situation of blind and partially sighted persons in 16 countries, through the support of FOAL

The WBU Asia Pacific Region will also hold an Employment Seminar in China in September of 2012.

Developing the capacity of our members

The Development Committee has continued to be active with representation from key international organizations involved in development work together with the Regional Presidents. Some of the work that has been done in the area of capacity building includes the following:

A development summit was held in June 2010, hosted by ONCE in Spain and supported by NABP and ONCE. The Development summit dealt with a number of topics related to development and also identified a number of areas for future work. Approximately 25 persons attended the Summit.

The committee assisted with the distribution of 10,000 braille slates and styluses to developing countries through the generous support of the Italian Blind Union.

A major priority of the committee has been the issue of emergency situations following a number of natural disasters that affected our members. Many members worked together to provide support to Haiti following the major earthquake there in


20010 and their facility has now been rebuilt. In addition, a Position Statement related to emergency situations was developed and approved by the Executive. It was also determined that, because this is an area that affects all members of the Vision Alliance, that we would undertake joint work with other Vision Alliance members. That work has just got underway and will be ongoing.

The Development Committee also oversaw the evaluation and approval of WBU scholarships from the Pedro Zurita Youth Fund, the Hermoine Grant Calhoun Scholarship Fund for Blind Women and the Arne Husveg Development Fund during the quadrennium. In total we have given our $38,750 in scholarships during the term.

Most Regional Unions conducted a variety of training programs among their members to assist them in the development of organizational structures and leadership development.

The African Union of the Blind expanded the HIV/AIDS Awareness & Training Program that was begun in 2006 in partnership with the CNIB, to several additional countries. This project improved the readiness of mainstream HIV/AIDS Awareness programs to provide their programs and services to blind and partially sighted persons and provided significant grassroots based information and training to blind and partially sighted persons throughout the region.

Through the support of the Danish Association of the Blind and their international development agency, the WBU Asia Pacific Region has implemented a capacity building project for organizations of the blind in Laos and Mongolia.

The WBU Asia Pacific Region has held annual seminars on Massage Therapy for blind massage therapists working in the region in order to facilitate information sharing and to provide advanced training in massage techniques.

During the quadrennium, the Asian Blind Union conducted a total of 23 training courses, seminars workshops or conferences among its members, most of which were supported by the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted. Some of the topics covered include the following: programs for teachers and other professionals; teaching mathematics, braille literacy, training in organizational management, training in advocacy and human rights. Many of these programs were delivered on a sub-regional basis to facilitate communications among members who come from different linguistic backgrounds.


Supporting our target populations for full inclusion

During this quadrennium, a decision was made to establish a Diversity committee to consider the inclusion of different population groups within the work of the WBU. This Diversity Committee has in turn been supported by specific networks concerned with women, elderly persons, children, persons with low vision and youth. While attempts were made to establish an Indigenous person’s network also, this did not take place. It would be fair to say that some of these networks achieved a good deal, others were less effective in their work. Some of the highlights of the work of the Diversity Committee include the following:

The Diversity Committee conducted a study among WBU members in 2010 to ascertain the extent to which persons from our various target groups are included in the work of the WBU. Unfortunately the response rate was too low to enable us to arrive at firm conclusions. From those that did respond, we found the inclusion of diverse target groups within the membership and particularly within the leadership of our organizations tends to be lower than had been hoped. However, there are some Regions that are making significant efforts to include more women and youth in their work, in particular.

The Elderly Persons network undertook a number of important initiatives: A report was developed and presented to the Officers focusing on the situation of the elderly blind and calling for more attention to this within the WBU. In addition, the Elderly Persons network has undertaken a partnership with AMD Alliance International to launch a joint awareness campaign regarding issues faced by elderly blind persons. This will be launched at the General Assembly in Bangkok. The network has also been working to develop a good practice web portal which will become part of the WBU website. This work is currently underway.

The Children’s network Chair has been active within the UNICEF committee on disability and the network also undertook to do a survey of parent’ associations so as to begin communicating with them on a regular basis. The response was quite good with some 30 countries responding.

It would be fair to say that our work in the area of low vision did not progress as well as we had hoped during the term. We recently decided to join forces with other Vision Alliance


members that also have low vision committees, to form a joint committee. This committee has now been established and has recently begun its work.

The Diversity Committee has focused a good deal of its energy on planning the Diversity Forum which will precede the General Assembly in Bangkok. The Diversity Forum aims to raise awareness among WBU members about the unique needs of persons from various diverse groups and give them strategies for including diverse populations in their work.

The African Union of the Blind conducted a significant youth development project within several countries in Africa. The project was conducted in two phases: Knowledge on Democracy and Development Project (KDDP), funded by SRF (Sweden) and the Africa Visually Impaired Youth Empowerment Project (AVIYEP) funded by Sightsavers.

The European Blind Union convened several seminars and events during the quadrennium that enhanced the inclusion of its members. One conference of note, entitled: "A Citizens' Europe for All, Disabled People on the Move", held in Dublin, Ireland in 2009 won a golden stars award from the European Commission.

The European Blind Union undertook the Intergen project during this past term; this project brought visually impaired people of different generations together with the assistance of professional trainers to share knowledge and skills with the aim of promoting ideas of diversity, inclusion, empowerment and sustainable community life through a model of intergenerational solidarity and active ageing. 34 workshops took place in Germany, Italy and Turkey with a total of 180 young and elderly participants exchanging skills and experience. This project was recognized for its innovation with an EU award.

The Asian Blind Union, WBU Asia Pacific Region, Latin America Blind Union held Women’s Forums in conjunction with their General Assemblies and the European Blind Union held a Diversity Forum as part of their General Assembly.

The Asian Blind Union organized 11 workshops on legal literacy for blind women to enhance their awareness of their rights.

The Latin America Union of the Blind has conducted research and established a working group to look at the needs of indigenous persons with vision loss in the Latin America Region.


Strengthening of WBU World Braille Council

The WBU World Braille Council was reconstituted in 2009, under the leadership of Mr J. L. Kaul from India, with representation from the major language groups within the WBU, from our Regions and from key stakeholder sectors. It is a much strengthened group which achieved a good deal to strengthen and promote the use of braille during this term. Some of the initiatives underway include the following:

While not specifically a World Braille Council activity, a number of events and celebrations were undertaken during 2009 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille. These included the hosting of three major events in France, including a major conference in June 2009 at Coupvray France. A number of countries developed braille coins and stamps; there were numerous Braille 200 committees; of particular note were events planned in India, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Brazil and of course, France, as previously mentioned.

The World Braille council worked on another of specific activities to improve access to braille and to encourage sharing of practices. These included: the development of guidelines for the establishment of National Braille Authorities which, once further refined, will be available on the WBU website; a survey of credible Braille libraries from around the world has resulted in a list of 150 Braille libraries from 72 countries; a comprehensive bibliography of research material concerning Braille has been compiled covering the period from 1912 to close to the present is nearing completion; the identification of uniform Braille notations for mathematics, science, computer symbols and so forth; interaction with ISO committees dealing with Braille on consumer products and public spaces; the publication of the 3rd edition of the World Braille Usage which is scheduled for completion in mid-2012.

A major undertaking of the World Braille Council was the organization of the international Braille 21 Conference held in Leipzig Germany in September 2011 and hosted by the German Central Library for the Blind. This was a very successful conference with 420 delegates from 51 countries participating, 68 papers presented on 6 topics. A special award was also presented to an organization demonstrating innovation in Braille.

The African Union of the Blind has also worked closely with the World Braille Foundation from Canada to promote inclusive education in a number of African countries. The success of the


project in two initial countries (Swaziland and Niger) resulted in additional funding for expansion into four additional countries.

Strategic Priority 3: Information Sharing

Strategic Priority Leader: Enrique Pérez, Secretary GeneralServing as an international information and resource centre on matters in respect of blind and partially sighted persons

Developing a Resource Repository for members including website

The WBU has focused a good deal of attention during this past quadrennium on the development of our website and improving our communications with our members. It is our objective to become a central source of information for members and the public and the power of the internet makes that increasingly possible.

We have updated the structure of the website twice during the term in order to make it easier for our members and the public to find the materials and also to make it easier for WBU staff to add information. We have also tried to ensure that most information is available in our three working languages of English, French and Spanish although this is not always possible, particularly if we are including resources that are not owned by the WBU. We are very grateful to a volunteer with the Jordan Friendship Society for the Blind for his efforts to assist us with translation of key information from the website into Arabic.

The receipt of a major grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to develop the Employment Resource bank will enable us to utilize this technology to develop other aspects of resource sharing through the website over time.

We have recently begun to utilize social marketing to communicate with members and to convey our messages to more of the General Public. This utilization is very limited at present but will no doubt increase over time as we become more familiar with its usage and more opportunities for its use emerge.

Developing international partnerships and collaboration


The WBU believes that the work we do is strengthened by collaborating with other organizations at all levels. We have found that joint advocacy on issues of importance to many groups can strengthen our own advocacy efforts; and we believe that we need to be present when issues of importance to blind and partially sighted persons are being considered in order to ensure that our perspective is heard. Furthermore, in this new era following the coming into force of the UNCRPD, there are increased opportunities for collaboration and partnership as well as an expectation on the part of major donors and international organizations that we will work cooperatively with other organizations. It is also clearly recognized and accepted that the voice of blind and partially sighted persons must be heard and is heard through the World Blind Union and our members. Here are some highlights of our international partnerships during this quadrennium.

An initiative that was launched in 2009 was the establishment of the Vision Alliance – a collaboration between the World Blind Union, the ICEVI and the IAPB. The mandate of the Vision Alliance, which meets regularly, is to find means of sharing and collaboration among our three organizations. While a number of areas for potential collaboration have been identified, the current priorities are a joint Low Vision committee and joint work on situations of emergency preparedness. We plan to take prominent roles at each other’s General Assemblies which take place later this year. And of course, the joint planning of the WBU and ICEVI’s general assemblies are a direct result of this collaboration.

WBU has continued to be an active member of the International Disability Alliance, which was chaired by the WBU Past President William Rowland during 2008/09. The IDA has developed significant strength and capacity during this quadrennium and now provides an excellent resource on the UN and its systems, advocacy and policy development related to the UN that we are now able to avail ourselves of. Through support from a number of donors, the IDA has been able to offer a number of excellent training programs that the WBU has participated in and is presently offering CRPD related training that our members are now beginning to access. In addition, our new Advocacy Coordinator is able to assist us with responses on behalf of WBU to IDA documents and is a member of a Human Rights Officers team developed by IDA to facilitate networking and support


among the Advocacy/Human Rights staff of its member organizations.

Our work with ICEVI on the Education for All Visually Impaired (EFAVI) campaign has continued as has our work with IAPB on the Vision 2020 campaign. Both these important campaigns are important to our members and we have also noted excellent collaboration in several countries between our WBU members and the local ICEVI and IAPB members to strengthen ties between them and to advance these important campaigns. In particular, WBU Regional and national leadership have participated in ICEVI Regional Strategy sessions to advance the EFAVI campaigns at the Regional level.

We also play an active role in the IDP (Institutional Development Program); attend all meetings and hosted the 2011 IDP annual meeting in Toronto in November. We also took an active role in the IDP Africa Forum (July 2011), providing sponsorship to some participants to attend and presenting on both the WBU Employment Initiative as well as the CRPD toolkit. We are delighted to note some of the developments within the WBU IDP program, including the recruitment of the new Senior Consultant who is based in Africa as well as a team of Africa based trainers. There have also been undertakings to relocate the Senior Management Institute Program to a university based program and these negotiations are ongoing. The Senior Management Institute program continues to be a very successful program training emerging leaders from Africa.

We signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the International Blind Sports Federation at our WBU Executive meeting in November 2010 and continue to encourage collaboration between our two organizations.

During this term, the WBU President has also held Board positions with the AMD Alliance International and the World Bank Global Program on Disability & Development. Both the WBU President and WBU CEO have been members of Hadley School for the Blind Advisory Boards. We have also been invited to make presentations at many organizations and events during the term.

Developing the capacity to include our various language communities within the work of the WBU

At the beginning of the term, we established a priority to improve our capacity to serve our different language groups. The WBU has


traditionally tried to support English, French and Spanish although we recognize that there are many other language needs as well which we simply do not have the financial or human resources to support at this time. We have made an effort to ensure that our communications are provided in English/French and Spanish and that the majority of the material on our website is available in these three languages as well. With the support of a volunteer in Jordan, work has also begun to make some resources available in Arabic as well.

During 2010, we conducted a survey among other international disability organizations to find out if and how they communicate in other languages. Of the eight organizations that responded, the WBU clearly provides more language support then almost all of the other organizations and only one organization in the survey was similar to us in terms of the language support provided. Most in fact work only in English. The WBU is proud of what we are able to do although we certainly recognize that we would like to do more if resources permitted.

The WBU office also began using electronic translation software during 2010 on a limited basis. We have found that this software assists us to understand messages that are sent to us in other languages and that we can provide a basic translation. While we would not plan to use electronic translation software for external communications, we have found it reasonably effective for internal communications.

Enabling Priority: Effective OrganizationEnabling Priority Leader: Maryanne Diamond, PresidentEnsuring the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the WBU

Working to expand the membership

Fifteen new membership applications have been approved since the General Assembly and more applications are pending. These included the admission of several new International members: AMD Alliance International, Arab Union of the Blind, Hadley School for the blind, Inclusive Planet and Lions International. The processing of new applications has been challenging in some instances due to the lack of response of some of our national members. In addition, three of our


International members have withdrawn their membership for various reasons, and two have asked to change their status from international to Associate member. The application process for new members was streamlined and we now have information about the process and a membership application on the WBU website.

The Constitutional Committee has also examined some membership issues that have arisen over the past number of years and have suggested some constitutional amendments that will provide clarity to the application process and will also enable the WBU to deal with difficult issues that may arise from time to time.

Maintaining the membership

We continue to have ongoing communication with WBU members on a number of topics and the Regional Unions are engaged to facilitate communication as appropriate. Some of the contact methods have included our quarterly E-bulletin as well as a bi-weekly E-notice that was initiated during 2011 and which was discontinued in July 2012. We believe that this frequent communication has resulted in improved fees payments and better quality contact information. The WBU office is now well established as the point of contact for members.

In addition to the communications devices developed by the WBU at the international level, many of our Regional Unions have also done a great deal to strengthen their communications with members. This has included the development of regional websites and the publication of regular newsletters in many of our Regions.

Coordinating the development of and reviewing WBU Policies and Position Papers

A policy working group was established in 2009 and has done a good deal of work to update policy papers and identify the need for new ones. A protocol for the development and approval of policy papers and their review was developed and approved by the Executive and this has assisted the policy review process. Papers have been categorized in terms of their need for review and several policy reviews were undertaken during the term with the result that some have now been updated. A number of new guidelines and internal procedures were also developed in order to provide documentation of practices and clarity to our members.


Overseeing WBU financial resources

The Finance Committee was active during the term, meeting on a regular basis to monitor our financial performance, review financial statements, approve the annual budget and deal with other matters to ensure proper accountability and controls. While a more detailed analysis of our financial performance over the quadrennium will be provided to the membership as part of the General Assembly papers, here are some highlights of our financial performance during the term:

The overall assets of the WBU increased by $209,796 from 2008 to 2011. This was in large part due to an increase in annual revenues of $580,809 in 2011 compared to $420,770 in 2008 (audited figures are of course not yet available for 2012. A substantial contributor to this increased income has been an increase in membership fees collected from the WBU members.

A major initiative that was undertaken during the term was the implementation of the new WBU membership fee structure, approved by the 2008 General Assembly and implemented starting in 2009. This new structure increased fees for many of our members, reduced fees for our lowest income members and overall resulted in increased fees paid to the WBU to support our work. In order to ensure fair and transparent application of the new membership fees structure, a Membership fees committee was established, Chaired by the WBU Treasurer and including the Secretary General, 1st Vice President and all Regional Presidents. This committee worked hard to develop clear guidelines and applications process for members in need to apply for relief under the new program. The committee reviewed many applications and made adjustments that in some cases included fee level reclassification and in other cases a reduction in membership fees. The committee also conducted an evaluation of the program for review by the Executive committee in 2010. Results indicated that the new structure has resulted in more members remitting their fees, more income being generated and equally important, the implementation of processes that are fair and transparent and which have the ability to be flexible enough to respond to the unique situations sometimes faced by our members. A new measure implemented in 2011 in order to provide even more flexibility to our members that are struggling with the new fees, enables approved members to provide in-kind translation support


into French and Spanish in lieu of fees payment.

Developing and implementing the Funding Strategy

We have done a good deal during the quadrennium to strengthen our capacity to generate additional sources of funds to support our work;

Following the 2008 General Assembly, the RNIB generously provided us with some part-time fund development expertise in order to enable us to begin the development of a fundraising program. Sarah Godwin, who fulfilled this role, was very helpful in developing proposals for us in support of several priorities and also in identifying potential sources of funding.

In 2010, it was determined that the WBU needed our own dedicated fund development staff person in order to advance our program and a position that combined responsibility for fund development and communications was established in April 2010 and has been in place since then.

We have now secured funding for three important projects: the CRPD research project in Africa, the Employment Resource Bank and the Advocacy Coordinator position. While we would have hoped to secure more core support funding, there were two major factors that have hindered our success: the economic downturn that began in early 2009 and which has continued in many parts of the world, and the fact that it is generally difficult to raise funds for core service programs for international organizations.

The fundraising policy was revised and approved by the Executive in 2010; this policy articulates the need for WBU fundraising and clarifies how this can be achieved without compromising the fundraising of our members.

The generosity of a number of our members has continued to provide a significant source of support to the WBU. Several of our members have continued their sponsorship of the WBU through annual pledges over and above their membership fees. In addition, some of our members have worked closely with us to help us access funds in their countries: CNIB permitted a joint proposal to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which is a very specific Foundation clearly within CNIB’s mandate and which


granted over $300,000 for the development of the Employment Resource Bank; RNIB from the UK and NABP from Norway have both offered to solicit their own donors with a special campaign to support the WBU. These campaigns will get underway later in 2012 and early 2013.

Our work with Lions International, while not resulting in increased funding opportunities for the WBU, has resulted in some program expansion from the Sight First program that will benefit WBU members.

A Resource Generation Working Group has been established and it has developed a sustainability strategy to help us look at other sources of funding in order to improve our long-term sustainability and so as not to be overly dependent on our members.

Monitoring the effectiveness of the WBU operations to support its work

The President has worked closely with the CEO and office staff throughout the Quadrennium to monitor the performance and functioning of the office operations. This has included regular email and Skype calls as well as face to face meetings whenever made possible by travel schedules. The President also provided regular updates to the Officers and Executive. One face to face meeting of the Executive was held in 2010 and the Officers met twice annually throughout the term. In addition, a decision making protocol was developed to facilitate decision making via email between meetings of the Executive or Officers. This protocol was used on numerous occasions and worked well.

Planning is well underway for the next General Assembly to be held in collaboration with ICEVI in November 2012 in Bangkok. A number of joint committees have been established, including the International Organizing Committee and Program committees, both of which meet regularly, mostly by teleconference. The Thai Association of the Blind, the local host, has received some significant support from the Thai government to support organization of the meetings and have engaged the support they need to organize the event. Because the AFUB General Assembly, the Diversity Forum and ICEVI events are all held in conjunction with the WBU General Assembly, it is a much more complex event to organize than in the past. Nonetheless we are getting good response from members and possible presenters and look


forward to an excellent 8th General Assembly. A public launch was held in Bangkok in January 2012 during the IOC meeting, with more than 40 representatives from the media present. Our Finances Please see our annual audited Financial Statements and the Quadrennial financial summary for detailed financial information.

Our Key SupportersApproximately 90% of our funding has come from members during this quadrennium. In addition to the membership fees paid by all WBU members, many of our members contribute to support our work in cash and in kind.

The following lists voluntary monetary contributions from WBU members over and above their membership fees. These members have contributed throughout the four year term:

Platinum Sponsors

CNIB (The Canadian National Institute for the Blind)ONCE (Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles)RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind Persons)Sightsavers InternationalVision Australia

Diamond Sponsors

NABP (Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted)RZNFB (Royal New Zealand National Foundation of the Blind)SFB (Swiss Federation of the Blind and other partners)

Gold and Loyalty Sponsors

National Industries for the Blind Danish Association of the BlindThai Association of the Blind

Other Major Contributors to Specific WBU Projects


Ontario Trillium FoundationCBM (Christian Blind Mission International)Open Society Institute Foundation (Soros Foundation)

In-Kind Support

Many members also support our work through their support of staff or volunteers on WBU committees and working groups at the international level and through our Regional networks. While we have begun to capture some of this in-kind support, this data collection is still very new for us and so it is not possible to accurately quantify the extent of the in-kind contributions. However, our preliminary analysis indicates that the contributions are very significant, both in terms of staff time and the payment of costs for representatives to participate in our work. We offer our sincere thanks to our members for your in-kind contributions; the WBU could not have achieved what was accomplished during the past four years, and indeed throughout our 28 year history, without that generous support.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we believe that the WBU has achieved a great deal over the past four years. In reviewing our achievements against the objectives that had been established within our quadrennial strategic plan, some significant progress has been made. Clearly we are speaking with a stronger and more consistent voice at all levels and are becoming increasingly recognized as the authentic voice of blind and partially sighted persons at the global level. We have improved our ability to be a resource on blindness and visual impairment and it is hoped that the launch of our employment resource bank will further expand our ability in that area.

While we are proud of our achievements over the past four years, we recognize that our work is an ongoing process; what we have begun, we will need to continue and we will need to ensure our ability to respond to emerging priorities as they arise. In particular, we know that we have just begun our work in the area of employment and that this will continue to be a priority in the next quadrennium, as will our work with the UN system and our members regarding the UNCRPD implementation and monitoring. We have also identified a strong need


to develop our ongoing sustainability so that we will have the capacity to respond to the needs that arise. To do that, we must develop additional sources of funding. While we are very grateful for the support of our members and we hope that we can continue to rely on our members for their financial and in-kind support, we will also be looking to supplement that through external organizations.

Working together, we will continue to achieve our goals and improve the situation for blind and partially sighted persons throughout the world.

OUR WBU LEADERS 2009 – 2012 WBU OFFICERSMs. Maryanne Diamond, [email protected]. Arnt Holte, 1st Vice [email protected]. Frances Candiru, 2nd Vice [email protected]. Enrique Pérez, Secretary [email protected]. A. K. Mittal, [email protected]. William Rowland, Immediate Past [email protected]

REGIONAL PRESIDENTSAFRICA (AFUB)Mr. Mohammed [email protected] (ABU)Mr. Ahmad Mohammed Mousa [email protected]. Santosh Kumar Rungta (February 2012)

ASIA PACIFIC (WBU-AP)Mr. Chuji SashidaDato` Kulasegaran (August 2011?)[email protected] EUROPE (EBU)Lord Colin [email protected]. Wolfgang Angermann (elected October 2011)[email protected] LATIN AMERICA (ULAC)Dr. Guillermo [email protected]. Volmir Raimondi (March 2012)NORTH AMERICA /CARIBBEAN (WBU-NA/C)Mr. Carl [email protected]

WBU STAFFDr. Penny Hartin, Chief Executive [email protected]. Ianina Rodriguez, Administrative Assistant [email protected]. Marianne McQuillan,Manager Fund Development & Communications


mailto:[email protected]















[email protected]

Committee & Working Group ChairsRight to ReadChristopher FriendMobility & TransportationSue Sharp/ Mitch PomerantzTechnologyStephen King/Kevin CareyHuman Rights & AdvocacyWilliam Rowland & Colin LowEmploymentMaryanne DiamondDevelopmentArnt HolteDiversityFrances CandiruWomen’s NetworkIleana ChaconChildren’s NetworkSusan LaventureYouth NetworkKerryanne IfillElderly Persons NetworkAlan SuttieLow VisionJill WagnerWorld Braille CouncilJ.L. KaulLanguagesGuillermo MorenoPolicy ReviewEnrique PérezConstitutionEnrique PérezFinanceA.K. MittalMembership FeesA.K. MittalNominationsColin Low

CONTACT US

World Blind Union1929 Bayview AvenueToronto Ontario Canada M4G 3E8Tel: 1 416 486 9698Fax: 1 416 486 8107Email: [email protected]: www.worldblindunion.org


http://www.worldblindunion.org/



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