Royal National Institute of Blind People

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RNIB (formally, the Royal National Institute of Blind People and previously the Royal National Institute for the Blind) is a British charity, founded in 1868, that serves people living with visual impairments.<ref name="Newcastle">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is regarded as a leader in the field in supporting people in the UK who have vision loss.<ref name="Watchman">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The organisation seeks to increase awareness of blind or partially sighted people’s lived experiences. Additionally, it campaigns to make services such as healthcare, education and public transport safer and more accessible to people with visual impairments.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales investigated the charity from 2018 to 2020, finding multiple failings described by the Commission's chief executive as "one of the worst examples we have uncovered of poor governance and oversight having a direct impact on vulnerable people".<ref name="CCInq" /><ref name="Cov2020" /> The RNIB began selling all its eighteen schools, homes and other institutions.<ref name=Guardian2020 />

HistoryEdit

RNIB was first established on 16 October 1868 as the British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind.<ref name="Science" /><ref name="Thomas 13">Thomas, p.113</ref> The first meeting, which was held at 33 Cambridge Square, Hyde Park, London, involved founder Thomas Rhodes Armitage (a physician who was partially sighted) and Daniel Conolly, W W FennTemplate:Efn and Dr James GaleTemplate:Efn (all three of whom were blind).<ref name="Thomas 13" /> Later, the organisation became the British and Foreign Blind Association for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind and Promoting the Employment of the Blind – generally shortened to the British and Foreign Blind Association.<ref name="Thomas 13" />

In 1914, the organisation relocated to larger premises in Great Portland Street.<ref name="Science">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> From 2000 until 2023, RNIB operated from premises on Judd Street, in Bloomsbury, London, which it shared with Guide Dogs.<ref name="GuideDogs">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2023, The Duchess of Edinburgh opened the organisation's new headquarters in the Grimaldi Building on Pentonville Road, London, which has been adapted to cater for the needs of people who are blind, partially sighted or neurodivergent.<ref name="Watchman"/><ref name="PentonvilleRoadAddress">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Grimaldi">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

RNIB's remit has always included reading and writing (e.g. Braille), education and employment.<ref>Thomas</ref><ref name="Rose" /> From the 20th century, welfare/social support has been important.<ref>Thomas</ref><ref name="Rose">Rose</ref> However, it was not till the late 1980s that eye health became a major focus.<ref name="Rose" /> Previously, eye health was seen as the sole prerogative of ophthalmologists and optometrists.<ref name="Rose" />

In 1914, the organisation changed its name to The National Institute for the Blind, or NIB, to reflect its status as a national body involved in all aspects of the welfare of blind people.<ref name="Science" /> The organisation was officially renamed the Royal National Institute for the Blind in 1953, having been granted a Royal Charter in 1949.<ref>Thomas, pp.142-43.</ref> In 2002, the organisation was renamed the Royal National Institute of the Blind ("of" rather than "for" blind people) when it became a membership organisation.<ref name="Science"/> To coincide with the launch of the UK Vision Strategy in 2008, it was renamed the Royal National Institute of Blind People.<ref name="Science"/> In October 2008, RNIB and Action for Blind People agreed in principle to combine some services across England. The new arrangement began in April 2009, resulting in Action for Blind People becoming an associate charity of RNIB.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It merged with RNIB on 1 April 2017.<ref name="Manor">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Anna Tylor, who is partially sighted,<ref name="Oliver">Template:Cite news</ref> has been RNIB's Chair since 2020.<ref name="White" /> Matt Stringer was appointed Chief Executive in 2019.<ref name="Weakley2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> King Charles III is the charity's Patron.<ref name="McCormick">Template:Cite news</ref> His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was RNIB's Patron throughout her reign (1952–2022).<ref name="TheQueen">Template:Cite news</ref>

Programmes and servicesEdit

RNIB's helpline gives access to sight loss experts for questions and guidance.<ref name="Hemmings">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

RNIB's extensive range of reading services includes RNIB Bookshare – a free library of over one million items, which supports students and others in education with a vast collection of accessible textbooks and materials<ref name="Exeter">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – and Talking Books, a service first established in 1935,<ref name="History Press">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which provides thousands of audiobooks, both fiction and non-fiction.<ref name="BlindVets">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

RNIB’s ECLO (Eye Care Liaison Officers) service aims to help patients understand the impact of a sight loss diagnosis and to direct them to appropriate sources of support.<ref name="ECLO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Since the 1950s, the children's puppet character Sooty is an exclusive feature on the charity's collection boxes.<ref name="Dickenson">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sooty">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CampaigningEdit

RNIB campaigns to change behaviours and perceptions around sight loss.<ref name="Oliver" /> It has been involved with several large-scale campaigns including calls for action to create a safer and more inclusive public transport system. In 2023, the charity played a key role<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Simone">Template:Cite news</ref> in a national campaign to scrap plans to close ticket offices in train stations.<ref name="munro">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022, the charity launched its largest-ever advertising campaign, See the person, not the sight loss, to raise awareness of sight loss and the support that people who have visual impairments might need.<ref name="Louis">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Along with other leading health charities, RNIB lobbied throughout 2023 for better disability support across the National Health Service (NHS).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The charity has campaigned for mandatory secret ballots for people with visual impairments.<ref name="SecretBalloting">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After the 2024 general election RNIB delivered an open letter to 10 Downing Street highlighting that according to its research roughly 87% of the UK's citizens with visual impairments were denied their right to vote in secret.<ref name="thiis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The campaign follows a 2019 court judgement that declared the UK's current voting arrangements for people with blindness or visual impairments to be unlawful. RNIB pointed out that in spite of the judgement, the majority of the UK's visually impaired voters do so using technology that requires them to be accompanied into the voting booth and have their choices read aloud by an assistant.<ref name="SecretBalloting"/> Template:As of only one person living with blindness in the UK has voted in secret, using a device known as the McGonagle Reader. This comprises an audio player with headphones and a plastic template to locate the boxes on the paper.<ref name="BBCMcGonagle">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Schools, homes and other institutionsEdit

RNIB used to run a number of schools, homes, and other institutions. In 2018, an Ofsted report was highly critical of the RNIB Pears Centre for Specialist Learning, near Coventry, which comprised a school and a children's home, founded in 1957 as Rushton Hall School. Ofsted described it as inadequate in three categories and requiring improvement in the other two. It highlighted failures in safeguarding the vulnerable children and in training staff to support them. Later that year, RNIB announced that it had been unable to make sufficient improvements and was closing the Centre; RNIB's chief executive resigned.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Also in 2018, the Charity Commission for England and Wales launched its own inquiry into RNIB following serious allegations of systemic failings within the organisation. In 2020, the Commission ruled that there had been significant management, oversight, and staffing shortcomings which had led to repeated incidents where young people in the charity's care were put at risk or harmed.<ref name="Guardian2020">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="CCInq">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Charity Commission's chief executive described this investigation as "one of the worst examples we have uncovered of poor governance and oversight having a direct impact on vulnerable people."<ref name="Cov2020">Template:Cite news</ref> The Commission stated that RNIB's corporate stewardship of services for children with complex needs fell far short of expectations<ref name="Guardian2020" /> and that the charity's board had been focused on narrow regulatory compliance and dismissive of criticism from the regulatory organisations it was accountable to – the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted.<ref name="Royle">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Weakley">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It found failures in training, safeguarding, record-keeping, reporting, responding to complaints, and the administration of medication, as well as instances of harm.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

It was then reported that RNIB was selling all eighteen of its care homes and schools.<ref name=Guardian2020 /> The Charity Commission gave RNIB an official warning and required it to overhaul its governance, management and culture.<ref name="NNR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In light of RNIB's progress in fulfilling the action plan, the Charity Commission withdrew its adverse decision in June 2022.<ref name="CCInq" />