Braille Institute opens new facility in Coachella Valley for visually impaired

The Braille Institute held a free community open house at its new Coachella Valley Neighborhood Center. Staff offered tours of the facility, demonstrations of their state of the art equipment and introduced the community to their team. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Friday, March 6. The center represents the next key step in making their services more accessible to the Coachella Valley. The institute offers free programs for local residents living with vision loss. "We are not only focused on blind services," said Katie Scheuring a certified vision therapist. "We also focus on low vision services and that means any sort of vision impairment from a small loss to a major loss. There is help and we want people to know that they don’t have to give up the things that they love just because their vision may not be what it used to be." The group has been serving the Coachella Valley community since 1973 by offering free programs and services to those who are blind or visually impaired.