The Royal New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 Foundation of the Blind is a provider of services to blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

, deafblind

Deafblindness

Deafblindness is the condition of little or no useful sight and little or no useful hearing. Educationally, individuals are considered to be deafblind when the combination of their hearing and vision loss causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they...

 and vision-impaired people. It was formerly the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind.

History

The Foundation began in 1890 as the Jubilee Institute for the Blind with a school and residence in Parnell

Parnell

Parnell may refer to:People* Bobby Parnell, a baseball pitcher for the New York Mets* Charles Stewart Parnell , Irish politician* Chris Parnell, actor and comedian* Lee Roy Parnell, country & western singer...

, Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

. Sheltered workshop

Sheltered workshop

The term sheltered workshop refers to an organisation or environment that employs people with disabilities separately from others. The term 'sheltered workshop' is considered outdated in the U.K...

s and hostel

Hostel

Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...

s were provided for many years. These were phased out at the end of the twentieth century in favour of mainstreaming

Mainstreaming

Pilot or policy Mainstreaming is the act of broadening the application of a change or innovation from a small-scale pilot to the whole of a programme or policy domain. It involves recognising that the results of an experiment are positive and the learning deserves to be applied more widely...

, members' greater integration into the community. A school run by the Foundation became part of the public school system.

The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Act 2002 allows for the Foundation to become an incorporated society.

Services

The Foundation websitehttp://www.rnzfb.org.nz/ lists the following services:
counselling, equipment, financial assistance, volunteer assistance, mobility, guide dog

Guide dog

Guide dogs are assistance dogs trained to lead blind and visually impaired people around obstacles.Although the dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are partially color blind and are not capable of interpreting street signs...

s, employment

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

 assistance, peer support

Peer support

Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters, and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, listening, or counseling...

, recreation

Recreation

Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...

, reading

Reading (process)

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...

 and writing

Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...

 in audio

Talking Book

Talking Book is the fifteenth album by Stevie Wonder, released on October 28, 1972. A signal recording of his "classic period", in this one he "hit his stride"...

, braille

Braille

The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...

and other formats, library, Telephone Information Service, accessible formats (braille, audio, electronic text and large print), adaptive communications and technology.

Info

• The foundation also did Braille checks for the video games Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen. They are mentioned in the credits.