Vista, a leading light for people affected by sight loss across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR).

Published on 24th May 2025 in General

[Image Description: A man wearing glasses and a blue hoodie sits behind a Vista information table at an indoor event. The table is covered with brochures, leaflets, and assistive devices, and a navy cloth with the Vista logo and the tagline "Improving lives of people with sight loss." A banner for a nearby support service is partially visible in the background.]

Vista, a leading light for people affected by sight loss across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR).

As we launched Vista’s Strategy for 2025 to 2028 at our 2025 AGM we reflected on what the challenges and opportunities might be supporting or stopping Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland being the place for people affected by sight loss to reach their aspirations.

There is no doubt that increasing financial pressures on our economy, on our local authorities and social services and on the charity sector are expected to continue. This means, Vista must do two things; ensure any services that run are not making a loss and secondly invest in our fundraising so that our supporters find it easy to support us and feel valued when they do. Tight management of our funds, only reflects what many of us are doing at home, and will ensure our services will continue well in to the future.

People affected by sight loss told us three areas of work would make the biggest difference to areas of their lives that cause real barriers to living well.

People affected by sight loss tell us when they met experts and other people in the same situation, be it a parent of a child with sight loss, or someone coming to terms with a change in their visual impairment, Vista’s role in providing access to the right support at the right time makes a life changing difference.

"In hind sight, I was in a bad place for a long time before I reached out to Vista. I wish I had spoken to them sooner.”

We plan to expand our network of support, particularly around areas of extra challenge (like being newly diagnosed, transitions like leaving school or starting work, or confidence in getting out and about), over the next three years.

With a lack of a national approach to eye screening and raising awareness of how to prevent sight loss so many people can keep their sight for longer, we’ll be launching our eye screening and awareness raising programme, with a real focus on understanding our impact across the region, and sharing our learnings across the UK.

"As a school that works with Vista, so that our children are screened at the right age, we’ve seen progress in some children as they’ve gone on to the opticians and can now see and read with confidence."

And finally, people tell us there are laws and best practice that exist to support people with sight loss to live well and access what they need locally, but organisations aren’t aware or aren’t putting it them into practice. Vista plays a vital role when visually impaired people are included in decision making and raise awareness when things aren’t working – for everyone’s benefit.

“As a visually impaired person in later life, I have lots of experience running my own business and being independent. Now I’m visually impaired, I see things I previously took for granted, and have a lot of skills and experience to bring about change locally. It’s important I do this, not for me, but others now and in the future who will be visually impaired.”

We’ll be making sure Vista is at the heart of local decision making, improving access and removing barriers so LLR is a place where people with sight loss are valued and included.

Last year from April 2024 to March 2025 Vista supported 21,500 people, with 93% of service users telling us our services resulted in increased independence, personal choice and greater autonomy. Nearly 400 people accessed our children and young people service resulting in 100% feeling better supported, benefitting from enhanced access to information and experienced reduced anxiety.

At the heart of our plan, is the voice of people affected by sight loss. We’ve made increased efforts to hear from a wider pool of people, not just those that regularly engage with Vista. We plan to ensure in all our decision making, visually impaired people are leading, guiding and involved every step of the way.

If you have a comment or question about our future plans, email us on governance@vistablind.org.uk.

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