The Story Of Cardiff Institute For The Blind
The Cardiff Institute for the Blind ( CIB ) was founded in 1865 by Frances Batty Shand, the daughter of a Jamaican plantation owner, who moved to Cardiff with her brother on the death of her father and after whom our present headquarters is named.
Miss Shand was concerned with the "ragged" children she saw in Cardiff and toured the city offering help and support until one day when she met Frederick Hallet, a representative of the Blind Bible Society, who told her of the plight of the many Blind men in Cardiff.
Determined to help, Miss Shand opened a small workshop in the Canton area of Cardiff employing four Blind men making baskets for the coal ships sailing from Cardiff.
Within a year larger premises were purchased at Byron Street in the Roath area and ten men were employed. In 1868 a third move was made to Longcross Street off Newport Road within 300 yards of Shand House.
In 1877 Miss Shand retired and little is known of her until her death in 1885 in Switzerland.
The Longcross Street premises continued to prosper and by 1900, there were 100 Blind men and women employed at the Institute in the manufacture of baskets, mats, brushes, ships fenders and sewing.
In 1941 Longcross Street was destroyed during a German air raid on Cardiff, but within weeks all employees were back at work, housed in small workshops scattered around the Roath area of Cardiff.
The Institute was given a plot of land in Newport Road in 1949 and work on the new premises commenced in 1951, which were opened in 1953.
The work of the Institute at this time was still concentrated on the employment of Blind and Disabled people, in 1965 there were 70 employees engaged on the manufacture of traditional products for a Blind workshop, but gradually as attitudes changed and more opportunities arose for Blind people in open employment particularly with the rapid growth in technology, the role of Blind workshops gradually decreased and today we only employ 15 on the manufacture of ships fenders, mats and the refurbishment of cane furniture.
With the decrease in sheltered employment, the CIB began to concentrate its role on the provision of direct services for visually impaired people in the counties of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan especially in the past 10 years when the growth in services provided has far outstripped those provided by any other Society in the country and many of the new developments have been copied and taken as models of excellence for others to follow.