The Valentin Haüy Association was set up in 1889 and accorded charitable status in 1891. Its founder, Maurice de La Sizeranne, who went blind at the age of 9, resolved to sustain the blind in their struggle to gain access to culture and the world of work.

For almost 120 years the Valentin Haüy Association has continued to pursue its founder’s primary aim and still does: to strive for – and with – the visually impaired for the recognition of their rights, their unfettered participation in society and the world of work, the development of their everyday autonomy, their information and the general public’s information regarding the reality of a visual handicap, means of prevention, and the need to constantly advance the attitude to the handicap taken by society at large and sometimes even by the visually impaired themselves.