About us

The Special View website provides a comfortable web interface for people with different visual capabilities. The Special View is intended to unite people with and without visual impairments, as well as to help visually disabled people find out about the existing opportunities and get assistance.

Special View is a programme of the Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation. The Foundation was established in 2006 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Alisher Usmanov. Its goal is to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Russia, support its scientific and sports potential, draw attention to the problems of visually impaired people and create an accessible socio-cultural environment.

The Special View programme was established in 2013 for people with different visual capabilities. We help visually disabled people, support their relatives and loved ones, work together with typhlo-pedagogue and audio describers, as well as share our experience with developers of services and facilities. In other words, we bring together all those who care about this topic.

The Special View website was founded in the autumn of 2018 as a comfortable web environment for people with different visual capabilities. Our authors – typhlo- pedagogues, psychologists, health professionals, culture experts and bloggers–consider the problems of inclusion in the context of culture, education, sports and employment. They also share stories about Russian and international projects and methods.

The Articles and News section contains up-to-date information about inclusive approaches in the spheres of education, culture and employment, as well as the latest technological and medical developments. Here you can read personal stories told by visually impaired people and get practical advice.

The What’s On section provides visually impaired people with information about the events accessible to them all over Russia.

The Reference section offers brief and to-the-point instructions for all eventualities, a library for specialists and parents, a database of organisations and audio describers, along with materials on eye health.

In the Media section, you can listen to podcasts and watch films with audio descriptions.

However, there is so much more we are doing. We create services for blind and partially sighted people, as well as for all those willing to help them – from providing computer literacy classes to training tutors. For more details, please refer to the Aid and Grants section.

We pay special attention to our relations with parents of visually impaired children. It is necessary to create a favourable domestic and psychological environment and find the correct approach to the upbringing of blind and partially sighted small children. Mastering self-care and orientation skills will help them grow into active, enthusiastic and self-sufficient people.

We accept applications from organisations and independent specialists seeking grants for training under additional professional programmes, for creation of adapted projects and acquisition of specialised equipment. In addition, we provide financial aid to low-income people with visual impairments to pay for their eye surgery.

We hope that the Special View portal will become a place where every visitor feels at home – as a welcome guest and fully fledged participant. Together with our partners, visually impaired people and their friends and families, we are making the world more open, accessible and friendly.

Our team:

Kseniya Dmitriyeva – Head of the Special View programme at the Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation

Diana Dovgaya – PR Manager at the Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation

Victoria Salnikova – Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor

Polina Zotova – Curator

Galina Vorobyova – Visual Editor

Elena Fedoseyeva, Anatoly Popko, Alexey Lyubimov – Consultants

Ilya Turayev, Darya Yefremova, Ivan Cherenev, Olesya Sinyak, Alexander Miroshnichenko – Sound Designers

Anatoly Popko – Author and Coordinator of the programme projects

Marta and Alexey Lyubimov – Authors and Coordinators of the programme projects

Our audio describers: Vera Fevralskikh, Yanina Isaichkina, Anastasia Lisichenko, Polina Zotova, Vera Trubnikova, Taisa Marchenko, Elena Kern, Ekaterina Negrutsa

Our authors: Igor Mikhailov, Victoria Viollo-Avdeyeva, Olga Fuks, Anton Khitrov, Galina Novotvortseva, Nika Parkhomovskaya, Liliana Marre, Larisa Nikitina, Maria Shcherbakova, Yulia Murayeva, Iya Rostomashvili, Elena Fedoseyeva, Anna Teplitskaya, Irina Povolotskaya, Larisa Ovtsynova, Ivan Borshchevsky, Maria Korolyova, Maria Soltys, Vera Falkovskaya, Marina Kutuzova, Kseniya Nikolayeva, Yekaterina Vakhramtseva, Olga Afanasyeva, Sergey Syrtsov, Yevgeniya Malyshko, Vladimir Vaskevich, Alina Yepishkina, Dana Merzlyakova, Marta Lyubimova, Nadezhda Dolmatova, Ilya Brushtein, Alexey Lyubimov, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Anna Demidova etc.

Our voices: Elena Khabarova, Alexander Stefantsov, Alexey Golubev, Maxim Senatorov, Timur Oragvelidze, Ekaterina Negrutsa

Contacts:

Email: editor@specialview.org