As we enter the final year of our five-year strategy, this is a moment both to reflect on how far we have come and to look ahead to what is possible next. Over the past year, SeeAbility has continued to grow, develop and innovate, giving us an even stronger foundation for the future. 

What gives me the greatest confidence is our people. Across the charity, colleagues provide support rooted in ambition, inclusion and freedom — enabling people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss to live the lives they choose.  

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to pursue their goals, build relationships, contribute to their communities and fulfil their potential. That belief drives us to reach more people, challenge inequality and break down barriers wherever we find them. 

As we look ahead to our next five-year strategy, we do so with optimism and determination. The challenges facing people with disabilities remain significant, but so too does the opportunity to create change.  

For more than 225 years, SeeAbility has adapted, innovated and stood alongside people to fight inequality and expand opportunity. We are excited to continue that journey in the years ahead. 

Lisa Hopkins, CEO

Our long-term aim is to create inclusive communities where everyone can live equally. We do this by creating more opportunities for people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss to live, love, thrive and belong. 

Our social care and innovative programmes will result in: 

Our support is all about combining our specialist expertise with the passion and ambitions of the people we're supporting. We want everyone to dream big, and then go on to achieve it all. 

You can see that in how we supported Tom to take his first trip to the USA. A lifelong lover of American culture, this was a bucket list trip for him – a dream that his support team refused to let slip away. Or you can see it in how we supported Jeremy to get the healthcare he needed, even when some thought he wouldn’t be able to manage the operation. 

These goals are achieved because we are institutionally ambitious. Our Great Expectations Framework, now in its third year, focuses our attention on what people most want from their own lives. It’s all about asking the questions people have never been asked before. Our Active Support approach embeds this at a daily level, involving people in every aspect of their lives. 

We’re always expanding to support more people to live ambitious lives. This year, we were delighted to welcome people into new homes in Hampshire and Surrey, and continue to look for more opportunities to reach those who would most benefit from our support. 

800,000 people with learning disabilities are living with a sight problem in the UK. As many as half are not getting the support they need. 

Our special schools eye care service continues to take on this huge issue, bringing eye tests, spectacle dispensing and clear written reports straight into the classroom. We are expanding the service at a rapid rate, with the number of school sites we’re reaching in London almost doubling in the year.  

That’s meant we’ve been able to offer eye care to people like Terence. When we gave him his first eye test, aged twenty, we found he could only see five centimetres from his face. You can watch the film to see his reaction to wearing glasses for the first time. 

Our Eye Care Champions are working to set up ‘Easy Eye Care’ community pathways, commissioned through local opticians, so anyone can access eye care near their homes. The pathways they have established so far mean 200,000 of the 1.5 million people with learning disabilities in the UK have access to Easy Eye Care. 

Our internal Vision Rehabilitation Team support people with vision impairments to build an independent life once any issue has been identified, but as you can see in Adam’s story, they can also be vital in saving remaining sight. 

There is much still to do, but our work is making an equal right to sight a reality.

Our work is shaped by lived experience. Our Listen Up! team of people with lived experience of disability drives our policy work and campaign for change at both local and national levels. 

Most members of our ‘Listen Up!’ Team met with their local MPs this year, sharing their experiences directly with decision-makers. Scott Watkin BEM, who leads the team, also met several times with the Casey Commission to discuss proposed changes to adult social care.  

The team have supported a wide variety of campaigns over the course of the year, and were delighted when the government announced in early 2026 that it would finally take action over pavement parking, an issue that they have raised repeatedly. They have also worked closely with Lord Scriven, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson in the House of Lords, on learning disability health issues.  

Ready, Willing and Able, our supported employment programme, recently celebrated its first full year in London, where it has already put down deep roots. The team supported seventeen people to secure paid employment across both its London and Bristol areas, a significant increase on the previous year.  

People with learning disabilities still face huge barriers to employment, but when they are given the opportunity to shine, the profound and positive impact they can have on our communities is immeasurable. 

This coming year marks the final year in our five year strategy, so it’s a period of both reflection and ambition. 

There is so much we have achieved in these five years. There are the big, charity-wide achievements, like growing to support more people than ever before across the south of England, and starting the national rollout of the special schools programme. But there are also the small, everyday achievements - from building skills so someone can take a bus on their own, to supporting someone to find their first job. 

In this final year of the strategy, we want to continue to grow, while always holding on to that person-centred, specialist support. 

Our Listen Up! Team will keep its finger on the pulse of changes anticipated in the social care sector. They will continue to fight for better healthcare, opportunities and lives for people with learning disabilities, so they are not forgotten in these national conversations. Ready, Willing and Able will continue to build on its successes and put down deeper roots in Bristol and London. 

Our eye care team are hopeful of supporting the NHS rollout of the special schools programme across London and the South-East of England, reaching tens of thousands of people. Their Eye Care Champions will continue to strengthen and build community pathways for everyone. 

People are at the heart of everything we do. Whether that’s listening to people we’re supporting and understanding more about their ambitions, or working with people in teams across SeeAbility to help make those ambitions a reality. We will always be a people-first charity, no matter how many people we reach.