Sight

Equipped with state-of-the-art digital testing instruments, OutsideClinic offer NHS-funded eye examinations to patients who face challenges in leaving their homes. Additionally, spectacles can be supplied and fitted. If you wish to discus your eye health, glasses, or to schedule an appointment, please call 0800 915 6236.

Second Tuesday of the month, 10:30 – 12:00 at Christchurch Library, Druitt Buildings, BH23 1AW.

The meetings are open to anyone affected by central vision loss. Family, friends and carers welcome.

Care Opticians believe that every person deserves the good quality of life that comes with good vision, which is why we specialise in offering a home visit optician service. Our highly trained Care Opticians perform comprehensive home eye health checks on all clients that are visited. This includes spectacle prescription, screening for Glaucoma, Cataract, Macula Degeneration, as well as systematic disorders such as Diabetes and blood pressure.

Care Opticians Solent provide home visiting independent opticians serving Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset, as well as Southampton, Winchester, Romsey and surrounding areas of Hampshire and Yeovil in Somerset. Contact Care Opticians Solent to book your next home visit eye test.

At-home eye tests are very similar to the ones you would have experienced in-store, just with a few adjustments and specialist equipment to make them home-friendly. All of our visiting opticians are fully experienced in conducting eye tests at home, so you can be sure you, or someone you care for, will receive the same care and attention you’re used to.

Visit the Specsavers website to see if you’re eligible for a free NHS funded eye test at home and request your test via phoning 0808 239 4231

RNIB, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, is the UK’s leading sight loss charity. We offer practical and emotional support to blind and partially sighted people, their families and carers. We raise awareness of the experiences of blind and partially sighted people and campaign for change to make our society more accessible for all. We want to change our world so there are no barriers to people with sight loss. Our Talking Books service is absolutely free. Giving you access to over 37,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children in accessible formats that suits you.

Call our helpline on 0303 123 9999

Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers and companies from all over the world through a live video call.

It’s a multi lingual support community giving free visual support with tasks like reading small print, matching clothes, troubleshooting, setting up home appliances for those that are blind or low vision.  You register as a ‘User’ or a ‘Volunteer’. As a user, you ‘call’ in the app and you’ll be connected to someone around the world (in whatever language you set as your preference) who will be able to help you with your issue/decision/action. Calls are usually only a minute or two as usually it is for fairly quick guidance i.e. which of these two cardigans is my red cardigan? Where is the ‘go’ button?   If the sighted person cannot help, the user can contact a company partner for specialised help. As a volunteer you accept ‘notifications’ from the app when you sign up – when you get a ‘call’ it will pop up on your phone as a notification and if you click on it, it will connect you – it’s a one-way video call (of the user) but with two way audio so you can answer their query.  You do not get assigned to particular callers, so will rarely speak to the same person twice. When you sign up it may be weeks before you get your first call but this is because there are so many volunteers. If you can’t answer a call (you only get a ‘notification’ to click on) it will divert to someone else very quickly.

Supporting blind and partially sighted people living in the Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and surrounding area to lead active and independent lives.

We support those in the Dorset Community who have a visual impairment.
I am the local Community Support Worker who can visit at home to assess the needs and support for the individual.
We run social clubs across the county, have a befriending volunteer service and also our own Equipment and Aids service that can visit you in your own home!

We provide a fortnightly local talking newspaper for the blind and partially sighted over an area from Christchurch to Swanage and North to Blandford, Wimborne and Ringwood.

Listeners can receive our paper on cassette tape, CD, memory stick, and on-line from our website or via Alexa. Whatever the form, it is completely free to listeners, there are not even any postal charges because of The Royal Mail’s Articles for the Blind Service.

We read news from The Bournemouth Echo, with sport and what’s on. We also have a serendipity or lucky dip section and a longer magazine article, often courtesy of Dorset Life.