CNIB Mobile Hub providing resources to visually-impaired people

A Canada-wide organization is providing support to people with vision loss in remote communities across the country, including three cities in the Okanagan. The first stop was in Kelowna, B.C.,  Tuesday afternoon.

At the event, organizers were doing their best to remind visually-impaired people of what they can do, compared to what they can’t.

“People with vision loss can come and come out of their shell so that they’re not as isolated and get a lot of resources for them to adjust to their vision loss,” said Tommy Leung, peer support and program advocacy lead with the British Columbia and Yukon division of CNIB.

1:56 Vision loss rehabilitation centre opens in Kelowna

CNIB provides resources to visually-impaired people across the country and its branch based in Kelowna gets participants involved in sports, work, training and education.

“No matter what age and what ability you have there is plenty of support just by contacting the CNIB office in Kelowna. We have everything from peer support groups to referrals,” said Ann Hancock with CNIB Kelowna.

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The mobile hub featured booths from organizations based throughout the province. One of those booths is providing new technology for free, all thanks to the New Horizons for Seniors Program.

“This grant is from the Canadian government and that is what actually allowed us to put this event on,” said Vittoria Spindor, community engagement coordinator with CNIB Kelowna.

“It’s through funding from them that we were able to purchase our DAISY players and Victor readers so that we can distribute them to the people today. A lot of people were on a waiting list for a very long time.”

3:39 CNIB experiencing a surge in demand for guide dogs

One of the goals of the event is to provide people living with sight loss with resources that make their day-to-day life a little easier.

“In a way, a gateway and entrance to confidence. A lot of times when people lose their eyesight they thought that they can’t do anything and when they get this technology, ‘Oh I can actually read books or actually can record phone numbers.’ Then that gets them thinking that maybe there’s something else that I can do,” said Leung.

The CNIB will be setting up more mobile hubs across the Okanagan this week including in Penticton on Wednesday and Vernon on Thursday.