About Royal National Institute of Blind People

Every 15 minutes someone begins to lose their sight. Your support helps us rebuild lives devastated by sight loss.

Losing your sight is not the end of your life but it is the start of a new one. We understand that if someone is losing or has lost their sight, it can be an anxious and emotional time for them. Help someone find their lives again.

"If I hadn't made that one call I don't know where I’d be. It's like throwing a stone in a lake, the ripples…everything that happened came from that call to RNIB" (Trevor, 67, diagnosed with glaucoma).

As the leading UK charity offering information, support and advice to over two million people with sight loss, our pioneering work helps anyone with a sight problem - not just with Braille and Talking Books but with imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges.

How your support will make a difference

£8 helps pay for one to one support and advice from our Helpline meaning that people can start to find their lives again after sight loss.

£15 to hold a Tele Befriending session for people feeling isolated by sight loss.

£20 helps fund practical training and information for people to get the skills and confidence they need to stay at work because losing your sight shouldn't mean losing your job.

£45 on top of an individual's membership fee to supply someone with Talking Books for a year

£125 pays for letters, music, novels and much more to be turned into spoken word and Braille so that blind and partially sighted people can read their own mail, sing in the choir or simply curl up with a good book.

£400 gives blind and partially sighted children the chance to make friends build confidence and have fun on a specially designed, action-packed holiday.

Find out more about how to get involved with RNIB to continue supporting blind and partially sighted people.

Our history

The founder of RNIB, Thomas Rhodes Armitage, was born in Sussex in 1824. He became a successful doctor but had to retire in his mid-thirties because of failing eyesight. At that time few people with impaired vision had any formal education and most had to beg in the streets or rely on their relatives for food and shelter.

Although a wealthy man himself, Armitage recognised that money alone didn’t answer long term problems, particularly with regard to independence. The solution lay in enabling blind people to gain both self-respect and new opportunities through education, training and employment. Armitage knew that the only way that people with impaired vision could achieve these things was if they could learn to read and write for themselves.

In 1868 a meeting in Dr Armitage’s house in London led to the formation of an organisation known as the British and Foreign Society for Improving Embossed Literature for the Blind. Later this became the British and Foreign Blind Association. The new organisation set about investigating all the known forms of embossed writing. After two years of thorough research, Armitage and his colleagues concluded that Braille was the most effective form of tactile writing available to blind people.

Braille’s major advantage over other tactile systems was that in addition to being able to read it, blind people could also write it themselves. Once this decision had been made, the promotion of Braille became an immediate priority for the Society. It began publishing literature in Braille, selling Braille writing and teaching individuals how to read and write in Braille.

While the adoption of Braille was a very important landmark in allowing access to information, Armitage realised it was worth very little without education. The Society therefore began providing educational facilities for children and young adults. The first schools to be opened were the Sunshine House Schools in Hertfordshire from 1918 onwards. They were founded as homes for young blind children and the first one, at Chorleywood in Hertfordshire, had an intake of 25 blind infants.

The first patron of the organisation was Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1875 and over the years the organisation has continued to enjoy royal patronage, eventually receiving a Royal Charter in 1948. The organisation subsequently changed its name to the Royal National Institute for the Blind in 1953. Today our patrons are Her Majesty The Queen and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. Our President is His Grace the Duke of Westminster DL.