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I. CHANGE:
When ICEVI was founded fourty five years ago, its field could be defined as special education of blind and visually impaired children in special schools. These special schools generally served children of school age and rarely accepted children with additional disabilities. This situation continued with only modest changes for the first two decades of ICEVI's existence. However, over the past twenty-five years changes in the field of education of the visually impaired have been substantial and numerous. This constantly challenged ICEVI to change to meet the needs of those we should serve.
While these specific trends and changes are too many to mention individually, they fall into several broad categories:
A. Those With Whom We Work: The characteristics of the persons served by ICEVI "membership" has changed significantly. Today, we serve individuals from birth to old age and at all functioning levels.
B. Where We Work: The types of programmes within which our "members" work have expanded tremendously : from special schools to settings of full-inclusion, from high tech classrooms to families, from center-based programmes to community outreach programmes, from twenty four hours care situations to occasional consultation, from specialized rehabilitation facilities to community based rehabilitation programmes in rural villages and urban slums, and so on.
C. How We Work: The methods and materials that "members" need to be able to use to most effectively provide education and rehabilitation services, grow almost daily, as do the professional demands that these new approaches and technologies place on our "members".
D. The Environment Within Which We Work: The socio-political climate within which our "members" work has changed over the past two decades. Some of these changes have been positive and some negative, but all have an impact on our work.
II. THE MANDATE IN BANGKOK:
When we met at our 9th World
Conference in Bangkok, delegates charged the ICEVI Executive Committee
with the task of responding to this changing enviroment by reviewing our
basic structures and developing a plan that would make ICEVI an organization
that was more flexible and responsive to the needs of its "members".
In reviewing this mandate
the new Executive Committee decided that the first step in this process
must be to give ICEVI a firm legal base. In 1995 ICEVI was established
as a Foundation in the Netherlands and "Articles of Association" were developed
based upon the existing constitution. Reports on these steps have
been published on several occasions in "The Educator".
Shortly after this the President appointed a Development Committee to look at future directions for ICEVI and to investigate how ICEVI might best respond to the changes in our field. Included in the questions that needed to be addressed were such important issues as : who should ICEVI serve?, what do "members" want from ICEVI?, how can ICEVI structure itself to respond to these needs? and how can ICEVI secure a sound financial base for itself?
The Secretary of the Development
Committee created a questionnaire which was circulated to individuals in
all regions. The high rate of return (80 % including spontaneous reactions)
and the detailed answers were positive indications of interest in this
effort to redirect ICEVI.
III. Recommendations:
The results of this survey have led to the development of a "Policy Paper" that has now been circulated to all members of the Intenational Consultative Committee and which we hope all persons participating in the 10th World Conference will have an opportunity to learn more about in their Regional Meetings.
Since this "Policy Paper" suggests ways of both building upon past accomplishments and establishing new priorities and directions, the Officers and the Development Committee feel that this document outlines a number of important points that all persons involved with ICEVI should understand and should agree upon.
The following are the major outcomes of the Development Committee's survey regarding issue and changes that the new Executive Committee will need to deal with in the upcoming quinquennium and beyond.
1. ICEVI should become an assocation composed of individual members who can feel affiliated with their organization and have democratic control over it.
2. ICEVI should become a more "bottom-up" organization by enhancing its regional units. The regions should direct the global priorities and actions.
3. To improve communication and information exchange among members steps should be taken to bring together those sharing common interests via "special interest groups" and "common language groups". Networks between these regional activities will guarantee a free flow of information at a global level.
4. ICEVI should enhance the development of publications; among other things by expanding through its membership the content of "The Educator" and making it available in additional languages.
5. To strengthen its work ICEVI should have a professional paid secretariat headed by a full-time Secretary General who will work closely with the President and be accountable to the Executive Committee.
6. ICEVI shall take initiatives to cooperate with other world organizations in its field, such as International Mobility Conference, Low Vision International and Deaf-Blind international, to together improve coordination and to benefit from shared actions.
7. Efforts will be made to increase ICEVI's representation with appropriate international bodies and organizations to raise awareness regarding the needs of persons with visual impairments and the role ICEVI can play.
8. To assist ICEVI in rapidly responding to needs and new directions, efforts must be made to develop and adopt a constitution that allows ICEVI to respond in a flexible way to new tasks and demands.
9. Special efforts will be made for the 11th World Conference in 2002, at which ICEVI will celebrate its 50th anniversary, to create an awareness campaign regarding the capabilities of persons with visual impairment and the education, rehabilitation and social needs of these individuals.