About Us

Who Are We?

The Community of Visually Impaired Youth is an independent, nonprofit youth initiative composed entirely of visually impaired young people. Our community is a dynamic team that has come together to develop rights-based solutions to the accessibility challenges faced by visually impaired youth in the areas of education, social life, and civic engagement.

Our Story and Our Source of Inspiration

The foundations of our community were laid by our founding members’ determination to work together to find solutions to the concrete accessibility barriers they encountered in their educational lives. Realizing the lack of accessibility faced by a visually impaired friend during their education, and noting that many young people around us lacked sufficient knowledge about how to advocate for their rights, motivated us to launch a rights-based civil advocacy campaign. In this vein, we set out to initiate lasting change at the local level by launching the “Strong Steps for Visually Impaired Youth” project under the European Solidarity Corps (ESC30) program.

Our Vision & Mission

• Our Mission: To develop the advocacy skills of young people with visual impairments, strengthen their ability to move independently, ensure their active participation in democratic processes, and improve physical and digital accessibility standards in public spaces.
  
• Our Vision: To build a future for civil society where people with disabilities participate fully, equally, and inclusively in social life, and where human rights violations and accessibility barriers are eliminated; and to establish a sustainable nonprofit organization in our region to achieve this goal.

Our Project and Activities

As part of our work carried out in line with the European Union Disability Rights Strategy (2021–2030) and the European Youth Goals, we provide our peers with training on writing petitions, official correspondence procedures, rights-based advocacy methods, and independent mobility. We monitor and report on the physical and digital accessibility standards of local public institutions and follow up on official requests to ensure these issues are resolved.