About Sight Loss Services Cape & Islands

What is Sight Loss Services?

It is easier to say what we are not:

Sight Loss Services, Inc. is not a state agency like the Commission for the Blind. It does not receive any Federal funds. It is not a part of a larger organization like the Mass. Association for the Blind or the Carroll Center.

The agency does not take or require insurance, and we do not charge any fees for any of our services – our clients are experiencing a physical and emotional crisis, and the stress of losing sight is enough without also worrying about the cost of needed services or if you fit a ‘qualifying’ income profile or demographic.

You do not need to meet a specific age, income, gender, or level of vision loss to have access to our services. We are able to do this through a combination of grants, municipal human services spending, and group and individual donations.

Services for the vision-impaired

This is what we are:

Sight Loss Services is a 501-c-3 organization providing peer support, information and referral, education and awareness, outreach/home independence training, and adaptive aids to people who are learning to cope and function safely and independently with the loss of sight.

Our programs are geared toward helping to reduce the fears and isolation caused by the onset of vision loss and toward helping to simplify the mechanics of daily living.

The agency helps those who are losing sight – be it through heredity, disease, or accident – to cope with the loss of sight and the challenges it carries.

The Cape Cod area is one of the fastest growing regions in the state for visual impairment, largely due to our elderly and newly aging population. All monies raised or donated are spent here.

During CY 2014, we provided 10,514 units of service to 1,622 un-duplicated individuals. No other agencies provide the comprehensive services as those provided by our agency.

We network with agencies that provide other kinds of resources for the visually impaired, including the Audible Local Ledger, V.I.T.A.L., Perkins Outreach, municipal committees on disabilities, libraries, Councils on Aging, town first responders, C.O.R.D., and countless eye care physicians and professionals, as well as affinity groups like the Cape Lions clubs.

Sight Loss Services has developed many programs over the years to foster independence and reintegration for the vision impaired.

It is important to remember that while the Mass. Commission for the Blind (one of the oldest and best agencies in the nation) offers many important services, they cannot aid a person until they are ‘legally’ blind. If your useable corrected vision is 20/178 instead of the legal standard of 20/200, you cannot see and need help, but the MCB cannot. We step in to wrap around other programs, providing aid and resources for those who do not qualify.

Our philosophy remains: No one should go through vision loss alone. Sight Loss Services is here to help.