Lesley Mackenzie leads the Visual Impairment Team for Aberdeenshire. The team was established in 2007 and offers a council-based service which aims to help improve the lives of all blind and partially sighted people living in the region.

The fact that there has been a significant increase in the number of referrals since the team was established clearly demonstrates that Lesley’s team have been very successfully reaching a lot more people in the relatively short time they have been serving their community.

Visual Impairment groups meet regularly once a month and provide a wide range of much-appreciated services; these include entertainment and outings to places of interest. The team is also working closely with Aberdeenshire Libraries to provide a home library service to local visually impaired people. This will feature a special audio book service in which books on CD can be posted direct from a local library to someone’s home.

Of course, this is where much of the audio equipment supplied from BWBF comes into its own! Lesley has also been in touch with one of BWBF’s recently appointed Regional Development Managers, who has since attended two team meetings, and she says:

”We are delighted with the developments that have been made with this service. It is so helpful to have Mark on hand to discuss any issues and we are currently looking for volunteers who may be able to assist people in their own homes with the equipment, thereby providing a quicker, more responsive service whilst also saving valuable time for our social work and rehabilitation staff.”