Handy Guide for Families

"I was told in a waiting room full of people and there was no information on how it would affect her. It was left up to me to find out about the eye condition." - Mother of Teenager with a visual impairment and additional disabilities.

Executive Summary

How would you feel if your child was diagnosed with having a visual impairment? Would you know where to turn for help and information? Would you even know what help and information you needed? Every person in the UK has a right to access information and Henshaws Society for Blind People's Children and Family Service are committed to providing information on appropriate topics, in appropriate formats to parents of children with a visual impairment, and also parents, who are visually impaired themselves, and furthermore, to aid likeminded organisations to do the same.

Henshaws Commitment to The Visual Impairment Sector

Although there are a great number of organisations in the UK who provide parents with information, there is currently no centralised body of knowledge on how individuals with a visual impairment or their families obtain information. With the help of funding from the then Home Office (now the Department for Education and Skills), Henshaws was able to commit to a three-year research commission, to identify the informational needs of service users.

From this research we were able to develop our Handy Guide for Families, containing tailored information for families with a child or parent with a visual impairment. The Handy Guide was produced closely following the recommendations made by respondents involved with all levels of the research. Henshaws was delighted with the enthusiasm of parents and professionals who have attended discussion groups and face-to-face interviews and spent time completing and returning questionnaires and diary keeping exercises.

May 2008 - Henshaws updated interactive Handy Guide for Families now available!

Henshaws Children & Family staff have been working hard to  update and improve the original Handy Guide and the latest version is now available as an interactive CD-Rom, word document or hard copy, depending on what suits your needs. Hundreds of families have already benefited from this invaluable source of information, made available free to those that need it.

To request a copy of our Handy Guide, please click here.