The UIC was founded in Genoa on 26 October 1920 by a group of blind persons under the leadership of Aurelio Nicolodi.

The founders of the Union were fired by the conviction that real social integration for the blind could be obtained only if the blind themselves were directly involved in their claim for rights as human beings and citizens.

The two guiding ideas were firstly solidarity amongst all the blind, despite their great differences in personal skills, experience and culture, and secondly the socialisation of problems deriving from blindness.

Founded as a non profit-making organisation in 1923, the UIC today is a private body representing and safeguarding the moral and material interests of the visually impaired at public administration level and at bodies and institutions that look after the assistance, education and vocational training of the visually impaired.

The aim of the Italian Union of the Blind is the integration of the visually impaired into society through unity of this particular group of disabled persons. In particular the Union:

1. favours the full implementation of the human, civil and social rights of the blind, their social equalisation and their integration into every area of civil life
2. co-operates with the National Health Service and its local offices in promoting initiatives for the prevention of blindness, sight saving and the functional and social rehabilitation of the blind
3. co-operates with universities, research institutes, educational administration and its collective bodies, as well as with cultural institutions and organisations and vocational training establishments to advance the education of the blind and the improvement of their cultural and professional level
4. advances the full implementation of a blind person’s right to work by favouring job placement as well as professional achievement individually or in a co-operative
5. advances the rehabilitation and recovery of the blind in every area of social life
6. co-operates with public administration and national, regional and local social services in the implementation of welfare initiatives responding to the needs of the blind, with particular emphasis on the multihandicapped blind, the elderly and the visually impaired in socially marginalised conditions
7. stimulates scientific research in the area of typhlology and technical aids for the blind by co-operating with scientific bodies and with industry
8. studies problems related to visual impairments by encouraging social establishments to organise various kinds of intervention in favour of the visually impaired
9. promotes the integration of the visually impaired into cultural, sporting and recreational life and in general any initiative aimed at favouring the use of leisure time
10. initiates initiatives of solidarity among its members through co-operation
11. promotes specific forms of job placement and school integration for the visually impaired with residual vision no greater than two-tenths

In order to reach its objectives the Union has created services to make up for the lack of adequate social services provided by the state and public bodies.

These services include:

• the National Talking Book Centre for the production of books recorded onto cassette (apart from the visually impaired, other persons with difficulty in reading can make use of this service)
• the National Technical Aids Centre for the production and distribution of special teaching and recreational material, aids for independence in mobility and everyday living, as well as high technology aids that are either computer or non computer based
• the Institute for Research, Training and Rehabilitation (I.Ri.Fo.R.) which works on a non-profit basis in the areas mentioned in its name
• the Italian Union of Volunteers for the Blind (U.N.I.Vo.C.), a voluntary organisation set up for those who wish to devote a part of their leisure time to solving various problems that the blind face every day (above all the elderly and people living alone).

The representative role bestowed on the Italian Union of the Blind by current legislation regarding the blind is confirmed by its rapid growth.

A survey carried out in 1993 by DOXA (an organisation dealing with statistical research and analysis of public opinion) showed that almost all those recognised as blind by the Ministry of the Interior who are members of associations of the visually impaired are members of the Italian Union of the Blind.

In addition, 87% of employed blind people and 79% of blind people with middle or high school education are members of the Union.

Basically over 98% of blind people who are members of associations of and for the blind are members of the Italian Union of the Blind.

The Italian Union of the Blind is the only association of the blind that allows only the totally blind to become full members and has a Constitution that states that all decision-making posts must be assigned to the blind with the exception of the position of managing director at provincial offices which can also be held by the sighted.

No other association, therefore, can lay any claim to the representation of the blind.

For some time the Italian Union of the Blind has been closely examining the problems of the multihandicapped blind, namely the blind with additional disabilities of a sensorial, motory, intellectual and symbolic-relational nature.

In every provincial capital there is an office of the Italian Union of the Blind where all those interested in obtaining complete and detailed information on services provided by the Italian Union of the Blind, legal provisions, various concessions, planned initiatives and opportunities for co-operation as well as information on the concerns, problems and hopes of blind Italians.

Incisive and constant action carried out by the Italian Union of the Blind has made Italian laws in favour of the visually impaired some of the most advanced in the world, a fact that is recognised unanimously at international level.

Some examples of the most significant results obtained by the Italian Union of the Blind are:

• the right to education since 1923
• the establishment of the "Teacher Training College" for the training of teachers in special schools
• the foundation of the National Braille Printing-House in Florence and the Italian Library for the Blind which acts as a lending library distributing texts in Braille and on diskette nationwide
• the obligation for provincial governments to cover the cost of scholastic assistance for the visually impaired until the obtaining, by those able to do so, of professional qualification including a degree
• an allowance for the blind who are unable to work and an accompanying person allowance which is given to the totally blind on the sole grounds of blindness
• the right to participate in exams for teaching posts and positions as headmaster in state schools, exams to follow executive and managerial careers in the state sector and exams for special and ordinary magistrates
• mandatory employment for blind telephone switchboard operators, physiotherapists and rehabilitation therapists

At present the Italian Union of the Blind is involved in the following activities:

• the defence of its social achievements which are continuously brought up for discussion just as the whole "welfare state" is brought up for discussion
• the improvement of its services
• research into new appropriate ways of intervening aimed at improving the quality of life and making the social integration of the visually impaired a reality.