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$40K fed grants for visually-impaired
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Posted on Jul 19 2000
The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation has recently been awarded $40,000 worth of federal funds to assist visually-impaired individuals who are 55 years old and above acquire the necessary vision aids that would support their plight to be independent.
The agency has been guaranteed continuous $40,000 funding for a span of five years under its Independent Living for the Older Blind program.
Tee Abraham, Vocational Rehabilitation director, is urging visually-impaired individuals and those whose vision are poor to avail of the services the agency is offering.
Under the program, qualified applicants can be provided eye examinations, eye glasses or other vision aids at the expense of the VR office.
In addition, consumers are also supplied with the necessary assistive technologies like talking watches, electric shavers, and magnifiers.
“Our philosophy here is to help individuals with these kinds of disabilities do a lot of things on their own, to live independently,” Ms. Abraham explained.
OVR will also be shouldering expenses for certain eye procedures.
“But we will also be working closely with MedicAid and the medical referral program in some cases where it would be costly to do the procedures so that we can share the costs,” she added.
The VR agency is set to send eye doctors to Rota and Tinian to perform eye examinations to visually-impaired seniors.
Residents of Rota and Tinian who will be needing extensive eye procedures will be flown to Saipan for further treatment.
OVR’s Independent Living for the Older blind program also hopes to increase awareness on the problems confronting visually-impaired individuals. (MM)
