YOUTH IMPACT: RESEARCH
What Associations Can and Cannot Yet – Offer Young People with Visual Impairment
When talking about young people with visual impairment, most public discussions circle around schools, assistive technologies, scholarships or specialised programmes. Far less attention is given to the place where many of these young people receive their first real support, practical guidance and a sense of belonging: their associations.
Within the European ERASMUS+ project Youth IMPACT: Youth Integration and Motivation for Positive Achievement and Capacity Transformation, led by the Croatian Blind Union in partnership with umbrella organisations from Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Cypriot research centre Emphasys, a comprehensive study was conducted to examine what local associations can offer to young people and what they still lack. With 42 out of 53 associations participating, the research provides one of the clearest regional overviews of the needs and capacities of organisations that support visually impaired youth.
Collectively, the findings reveal a predictable but worrying pattern. Associations across all participating countries most frequently offer access to assistive technologies, counselling on exercising rights, opportunities for peer gatherings and the development of social skills. Yet the services they provide least include Braille instruction, mental health counselling and support related to employment and career development, precisely those areas that are essential for long-term independence.
When asked about the needs of young people themselves, associations place the highest emphasis on removing barriers and ensuring accessible environments. This is followed by counselling on rights, support for family members and psychological assistance. Educational support is consistently ranked among the least urgent needs. At the same time, associations report their own greatest weaknesses in the very same areas that young people need most: creating accessible environments, collaborating with institutions, fighting stigma and advocating for employment opportunities.
Croatia: strong foundations, but critical gaps
Croatian associations most often support young people by working with family members, offering social-skills development, facilitating the transition to the labour market and providing access to assistive technologies. However, Braille instruction, orientation and mobility training and psychological support are offered least, largely because these services remain concentrated within the education system, particularly at the Vinko Bek Centre. Young people’s primary needs include barrier-free environments, access to rights and psychological support, while associations themselves seek more capacity-building in advocacy, cooperation with institutions and combating prejudice.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: systemic limitations shaping what associations can provide
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, associations primarily offer educational support, while providing very little help with labour-market transition, psychological support or assistive technologies. Young people are said to need accessible environments, everyday-skills development and support in exercising rights. Associations ask for stronger cooperation with institutions, improved societal attitudes towards youth with visual impairments and greater support in addressing infrastructural obstacles.
Montenegro: practical skills and self-advocacy at the forefront
Montenegrin associations excel in counselling on rights, orientation and mobility training, psychological support and the development of self-advocacy skills. However, support to families, labour-market transition and educational assistance remain underdeveloped. According to associations, young people most need accessible environments, psychological support and help with daily living skills. Associations themselves need better intersectoral cooperation, tools to combat stigma and stronger project-development capacities.
Slovenia: the most advanced system, yet missing long-term support
Slovenian associations offer the region’s most developed set of services, particularly in everyday living skills, access to assistive technologies and social-skills development. But, as elsewhere, psychological support, career guidance and labour-market transition remain limited. Young people most need support in exercising rights, help for their families and orientation and mobility training. Associations identify their own needs in motivating young people to take part in activities, addressing stigma and improving accessibility.
A shared problem: the gap between needs and capacities
Across all four countries, the pattern is unmistakable. Young people need accessible environments, psychological support, help in becoming independent and support in employment. Associations know this, but lack the resources to respond adequately. They remain the first – and often only – place where visually impaired youth can seek advice, find peers, build confidence or simply feel understood. Yet their hands are tied by funding shortages, limited staffing and systemic constraints.
The research also shows that associations with more young members are more aware of their own need for additional training, cooperation with institutions and better project planning. This signals that young people are willing to participate – but that organisations lack the capacity to channel that willingness into meaningful engagement.
Towards stronger associations – and stronger young leaders
The Youth IMPACT project aims to change this trajectory. Its goal is to strengthen associations so they can become modern, professional and attractive centres for young people with visual impairment. This requires improving psychological support, offering systematic Braille instruction, enhancing cooperation with institutions, tackling barriers and building young people’s skills in self-advocacy and decision-making.
If associations receive the support they need, they can become places where confidence grows, independence develops and future leaders are formed. Young people with visual impairment are not passive recipients of help; they are a wealth of potential awaiting an opportunity. Whether society enables them to realise that potential depends on how effectively associations are supported and recognised as critical players in the inclusion process.
The question, then, is not whether associations can meet the needs of young people – they have been trying to do so for years, often beyond their available capacities. The real question is whether society is willing to provide them with the tools they need to grow into strong, influential and professional centres that empower young people to shape their own futures.
If the answer is yes, the impact will not be seen only in statistics but in lives transformed – in young people who finally have the conditions not just to imagine a fuller life, but to achieve it.