Founded in Bologna in 1881, the Institute immediately started playing a fundamental role for the Italian blind people by dealing with integration, training, rehabilitation and autonomy. It has always paid great attention to the social changes and to the technical and scientific development and has nowadays become one of the Italian leader in the field of visual impairement. Its structure and activities have deeply changed in the last twenty, thirty years, in order to offer the best opportunities in education, technologies and professional integration. The most relevant activities are: Psychological and technological support to improve the integration of visually impaired children at the school; Promotion of different workshops in collaboration with the University of Bologna (Alma Mater) to provide students with basic information about visual impairment; Adaptation and distribution of books into braille, talking and digital formats, accessible to visually impaired readers; Consulting, accessibility services and testing for people, school, companies, private and public associations; Support, assistance and vision rehabilitation for visually impaired people of all ages with the formal approval of the Emilia Romagna Region Administration (National Act. 284/97). The Institute was entrusted with the preparation of guidelines for prevention and visual rehabilitation; Production and distribution of braille devices, voice synthesizers, screen magnifiers and dedicated software for computers and mobile phones; Organization of courses for telephone and communication operators; Anteros Museum, which holds a huge collection of tactile versions of pictures from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age and organizes workshops of modelling and tactile perception; RadioOltre, web radio established to broadcast cultural content related to the problems of the visually impaired; Publication of an annual house organ magazine, distributed in 15,000 copies.