A Keighley charity is celebrating a huge cash windfall that will enable it to provide VIPs with a first class introduction to computers.

Keighley and District Association for the Blind has received more than £70,000 of government cash, which will be used to establish a new OnLine computer centre for visually impaired people (VIPs).

The new suite will include five state-of-the-art computer workstations that will be used to provide a grounding in IT skills.

Blind and partially sighted people will also be able to gain access to the Internet, use video conferencing facilities and take part in on-line tuition thanks to a fibre optic link with Keighley Library.

The exciting project has been made possible thanks to a joint bid between the blind association and Bradford social services Sensory Needs team - the Bradford-based support service for deaf and blind people.

They successfully applied for a £221,000 government grant to develop UK OnLine centres at Scott Street and the sensory needs headquarters in Morley Street.

The blind association will receive around a third of the grant.

IT instructor John Holt says: "We are looking to bridge the gap for the visually impaired computer user by offering a training centre especially designed for them.

"The centres will offer formal training in an informal atmosphere, to a level where the user feels confident enough to get the most out of the technology available to them at other IT centres and further education colleges.

"We will also be offering support to VIP users who, as part of any further education courses, need that bit of extra help with ICT to enable them to keep pace with sighted users.

"The centre in Keighley will be open to all registered visually impaired people who need to access the technology.

"We have worked closely with Keighley Library, and the project has the support of both Keighley and Bradford colleges."

Work will begin soon on converting an attic room at Scott Street into the new centre, which members hope will be up and running next spring.

A new Braille link machine, which sits on top of a conventional keyboard, will be purchased to complement the existing machine bought with cash from the association's millennium fund.

New larger screens will also be introduced in the existing computer room as well as the new suite.

UK OnLine centres have been introduced by the government to provide adults who are disabled, unemployed or from ethnic minorities with access to computers.