Every year Vision Australia present awards at its Annual General Meeting to individuals and an organisation whose work and/or sponsorship make a significant contribution to the blindness and low vision community.
This year's award recipients include Stephen Jolley, Stephen Belin, Ron McCallum, Jan Lovie-Kitchin and Myer.
Myer
Myer has been the presenting partner for Carols by Candlelight since 2008 and has also supported Vision Australia through Gift Wrap. Gift Wrap was a fundraising activity hosted by Myer, where for a gold coin donation, Myer customers could have their Christmas presents beautifully wrapped by our team of Vision Australia volunteers. During our seven year partnership, Myer has raised valuable funds and made direct financial contributions to support us to deliver services to the blindness and low vision community.
Stephen Belbin
Stephen Belbin was a leading member of Vision Australia’s Client Consultative Framework for 10 years. In 2006, Stephen joined Regional Client Committee 4, Vision Australia’s client representative group in Northern NSW. Following that, Stephen became the Chair of that committee and was elected to represent clients on Vision Australia’s peak consultative body, the Client Representative Council (CRC), in 2007. In 2010 Stephen was elected Chair of the CRC and remained as the Chair of both Regional Client Committee 4 and the CRC until August 2015. During his time in these roles, Stephen advocated for equal access for people who are blind or have low vision in the areas of employment, education and technology. We thank Stephen for his significant contribution to the Client Consultative Framework.
Stephen Jolley
In 1994 Stephen joined Vision Australia, which in Melbourne at the time was The Association for the Blind. Stephen led the organisation’s radio service and after 15 years at the helm, had grown the service from a single Melbourne station to a network of eight Vision Australia stations across Victoria and southern NSW.
In 2009 Stephen moved into a client communications role. During this period of his career Stephen created Vision Australia’s weekly radio program Talking Vision and developed the regular audio newsletter Your Vision Australia Roundup. In collaboration with other team members, he played a key role in the development of our monthly electronic client newsletter F.Y.I.
Stephen retired in February this year however he is still involved at Vision Australia. He is currently the spokesperson for our audio description campaign and heads the audio description change.org petition.
We thank Stephen for his many years of valuable contributions to our organisation and his ongoing role in making a difference to the blindness and low vision community.
Ron McCallum AO
Ron McCallum AO is an Emeritus Professor and former Dean of Law, University of Sydney.
Ron’s contributions to the blindness and low vision community are too many to mention. An accomplished individual, we have been privileged to have had him serve on our Board for the past seven years.
Ron is a director of the Ability First Australia Board; a consultant with HWL Ebsworth (lawyers); a parent of the Australian administrative Appeals Tribunal; and a former Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ron is an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) and was senior Australian for the year 2011.
We thank Ron for his years of work as a Board member and as Chair of the Vision Australia Board.
Jan Lovie-Kitchin
Jan Lovie-Kitchin is an impressive individual who has achieved many accomplishments throughout her career. Her clinical practice and post-graduate study in Melbourne in the 1970’s resulted in the Bailey-Lovie visual acuity charts, which are now used in low vision clinics and in major research studies throughout the world. Jan is an Adjunct Professor in the Queensland University of Technology School of Optometry. We thank Jan for her years of service on our Board and for her ground breaking work within the study of low vision that has benefited the community we support.