A survey conducted into why employers do not employ visually impaired people, came up with the following reasons:
- Employers think they haven’t got the right facilities
- They don’t think that visually impaired people can do the job
- Health and Safety issues e.g. what are reasonable adjustments
- Blind and partially sighted people are too slow
- They will need to provide everything in Braille
- There will be high levels of absenteeism and poor punctuality
- Employers have a stereotypical conception that visually impaired people will have poor appearance (unkempt)
- They will need to provide specialist training which will be too costly
Visually impaired people also have their own concerns about accessing employment:
- What sort of job can I do?
- Who can help me access employment?
- How can I return to work after being out of the labour market for a long period of time?
- How do I look for jobs when I cannot see the advertisements?
- How do I complete an application form?
- Why would an employer recruit somebody with a visual impairment?
- Will I lose my benefits?
- How will I get to work?
- Will I be discriminated against?
- Will I be able to carry out my role effectively?
- What support will I get?
- Will equipment such as access technology be provided for me?
- Will I need further training?
- How will I get a Support Worker?
- I don’t have the clothes
- My family are a barrier to me accessing employment. They are too protective
- Application forms and job descriptions are not always accessible even when they are in electronic format
For further information, click on Guide to Employment within this section.