Welcome to the Ontario Parents of Visually Impaired Children – OPVIC

Are you the parent, guardian or family member of a child or youth who is blind, has low vision, is deafblind, or who has vision loss and other disabilities anywhere in Ontario? OPVIC wants you to connect with us, learn about us and join us! We are a friendly, supportive, informal, grass roots organization of parents, family members and guardians of children with any amount of vision loss. We are volunteer and non-profit. Membership is free. We were formerly known as Views for the Visually Impaired, or “Views.”

Here’s what we can do for you:

• Connect you with other parents, guardians and family members of children and youth with vision loss, to get practical tips from each other on parenting a child with vision loss.
• Give you quick access to helpful information, resources and tools on your parenting journey.
• Give you a chance, from the comfort of your home, to take part in our free educational programs. You can learn from experts and peers about effective ways to help your child grow, become independent, and succeed in their education and future life after school. We have partnered with CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) to provide these educational programs for you over the internet or by phone.
• We advocate for reforms to provide more opportunities for our children. You can benefit from, and take part, in our advocacy to the Ontario Government and local school boards to get them to improve how they meet the needs of students with vision loss.

Sign up to join us. Membership is free. Visit our membership sign-up page. Just click here.

If you get in touch with us, we can make sure you are notified about great educational programs that we conduct on our own, or jointly with others such as the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Write us at opvicfeedback@gmail.com to get involved.

Follow the OPVIC Facebook page.
Follow OPVIC on Twitter at: @_OPVIC.ca

You can learn so much about being a parent of a child with vision loss of any age! We do pretty much all of our educational programming through virtual events, so you can take part from home!

We are trying to expand our membership by including as many parents, guardians and family members of children with vision loss as possible. Email us if you would like to volunteer with us, from your own home! No matter how busy you are and how little free time you have, we would welcome your help. Email us at opvicfeedback@gmail.com

Would you like to get connected with another parent, guardian or other family member of a child of any age with vision loss, for some informal peer support? Would you like to volunteer to provide this peer support to others who could benefit from it? Contact us, at our email address opvicfeedback@gmail.com. We will do our best to try to make a connection for you. Please remember that we are volunteers, so we can only do our best informally. We cannot offer to represent you, or give you legal or other professional advice.

This revamped website of ours is your gateway to so much helpful information:

Our What’s New page, where you can find the latest updates about us.

Our Resources page. In one place, you can find helpful resources for parents, guardians and family members of children and youth with vision loss. These resources are also helpful for teachers, physicians, and other professionals who work with children or youth who are blind, low vision or deafblind.

Our educational programs page: What free, helpful education programs does OPVIC offer for parents, guardians and family members of children with vision loss? How can you learn about these and take part in them from the comfort of your own home?

Our SEAC page. SEAC is short for Special Education Advisory Committee. Each Ontario school board must have a SEAC. OPVIC is entitled to a seat there, and has representatives on several SEACs around Ontario. What does a SEAC do? How can it help you? How can you become the OPVIC rep on your school board’s SEAC?

Our TVI page. TVI stands for teacher of the visually impaired. We have been advocating in Ontario for years to increase the training required for a person to qualify as a teacher of the visually impaired, and to substantially increase the number of teachers of the visually impaired in Ontario. Learn how and why Ontario is so far behind so many other provinces and countries, and how we’re trying to fix it.

Our briefs page: You can see all the formal written briefs and other written submissions that OPVIC has submitted to the Government and other official organizations as part of our advocacy for children and youth with vision loss.