A boy sits in the board room at the RVIB building in St Kilda Road, holding a Taylor's mathematical slate. Developed by Rev. William Taylor in the mid-late 19th century, this English invention provided a device that allowed pegs to represent a variety of numbers upon an array, rather than using raised numbers. Various models were produced around the world before it's eventual demise around the early 1970's.B/W image of a boy holding a metal grid in his laproyal victorian institute for the blind, braille equipment

Portrait of the Chairman of the Board of Directors J.H. Cockayne. Joining the Board in 1981, he rose to the position of Chairman in 1985 and retained this until the Library merged with the Association for the Blind in 1991.B/W photograph of J.H. Cockaynejohn cockayne, braille and talking book library

Minutes of the first White Cane Day organising committee, led by Bryan Sitlington, who organised events to celebrate the first proclaimed White Cane Day in Victoria.22 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, john blanch, blind members council, howard m. lightfoot, norman banks, derek pickard, adrienne kemp, lindsay mcmillan, c. poulson, royal guide dogs association, l. triggot, val whitehead, villa maria society, r. johnston, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the second White Cane Day organising committee, led by Bryan Sitlington, which decided to concentrate activities on to a single day. 20 pages of meeting minutes with covering letterwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, john blanch, villa maria society, blind members council, lindsay mcmillan, royal guide dogs association, national federation of blind citizens, m. jones, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, lady nell seeing eye dog school, allen egerton, val whitehead, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the third White Cane Day organising committee, led by Bryan Sitlington.22 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, guide dogs for the blind association victoria, allen egerton, bryan sitlington, jennie lawrey, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, villa maria society, ross johnstone, val whitehead, mark jones, phyllis gration, adrienne kemp, jennifer gordon, national federation of blind citizens, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the fourth White Cane Day organising committee, chaired by Bryan Sitlington.20 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, guide dogs for the blind association victoria, jennifer gordon, jennie lawrey, val whitehead, villa maria society, greg cooper, hugh jeffrey, national federation of blind citizens, peter barilla, graeme rule, phyllis gration, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the fifth White Cane Day organising committee, chaired by Bryan Sitlington.26 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, kathleen buchannan, graeme rule, jan kerr, val whitehead, harold gration, national federation of blind citizens, royal guide dogs for the blind association, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, ross johnstone, villa maria society, mark jones, national guide dogs mobility training centre, camille wilkins, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the sixth White Cane Day organising committee, chaired by Bryan Sitlington.25 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, val whitehead, harold gration, royal guide dogs for the blind association, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, ross johnstone, villa maria society, mark jones, camille wilkins, sue fraser, bob gregory, sue hardy, chris anderson, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the seventh White Cane Day organising committee, chaired by Bryan Sitlington.33 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, val whitehead, harold gration, national federation of blind citizens, royal guide dogs for the blind association, ross johnstone, villa maria society, camille wilkins, sue fraser, iris whittaker, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind

Minutes of the eighth White Cane Day organising committee, chaired by Bryan Sitlington. This file also includes minutes from a meeting of the Australian National Council of and for the Blind, which Mr Sitlington attended in his role as chair.39 pages of typed meeting minutes on white paperwhite cane day, bryan sitlington, australian national council of and for the blind, harold gration, national federation of blind citizens, royal guide dogs for the blind association, royal victorian eye & ear hospital, ross johnstone, villa maria society, camille wilkins, iris whittaker, dr t davidson, john cook, royal victorian institute for the blind, braille and talking book library, association for the blind, e.e. (ted) petersen

Audio manager Karl Hughes sits at his desk, answering the phone as he acknowledges the photographer with a smile. Behind him are bookcases filled with audio reels and cassettes. To his left, a glass wall is covered with photographs and news clippings of audio book award success. On his desk sits a computer, some DAT tapes and piles of paperwork.Karl Hughes on the phone surrounded by audio reels and tapesbraille & talking book library, robert de graauw, karl hughes

A recording session with narrator Lise Rodgers, and producer Carmel McAloon, at the studios in Commercial Road.Lise Rodgers reads a book into a microphone whilst Carmel McAloon sits outside the booth, listening to the recordingbraille & talking book library, robert de graauw, carmel mcaloon, lise rodgers

The Eureka A4 was a Melbourne invention, designed to capitalise on the growth of IBM PCs. It attached to the PC and allowed blind and vision impaired people to utilise screen orientated programs. The Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind supported the project and in this image, David Blyth and the managing director of Robotron Milan Hudecek, pose for a publicity shot at the launch of the Eureka A4 Notetaker in July 1997. Black and white photograph of two men at the Eureka A4 computer standDavid Blyth, Director of Community Services at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind, carrying a Eureka A4, while Milan Hudecek, Managing Director of Robotron Pty Ltd looks on.royal victorian institute for the blind, braille equipment, david blyth, milan hudecek

The second version of the Versabraille system, which appeared in 1987, reflected the change from cassette to floppy disks and an enhanced method to produce 128 standard ASCII characters. Light brown coloured plastic square object with brown covering box and transformer with cord TSIbraille equipment, assistive devices

The Taylor Slate was developed by Rev. William Taylor in England in the mid 19th century it was in common use until the early 1970's and enabled blind or vision impaired students to do maths calculations by arranging metal pegs in the slate. The main part of the slate is a metal sheet with 432, 8 sided holes which small metal pegs are inserted. The pegs have different shapes on their ends. These are used to represent different numbers and symbols depending on the way the pegs are placed in the slate and which combinations of pegs are used.2 silver rectangular metal mathematical slates including tray education, braille equipment