This World Braille Day, we need to take a hard look at how blind people are seen

Visually impaired adults remain disproportionately excluded from job opportunities 

Just because we can’t always see you, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see us in the workplace.

Almost 2 million people live with sight loss in the UK. Yet visually impaired people are disproportionately likely to be unemployed. Research from the RNIB shows that only 27% of people registered blind and partially sighted are in paid work.

This has barely improved in a generation. Businesses must do more to offer opportunities to visually impaired people seeking work, and to seize the value that such individuals offer their organisations.

Similar research in 1991 was a turning point for me personally. I realised I was in the minority. I have been blind my entire working life and have always known that having a career, particularly in business, is the exception for people like me.

This prompted me to co-found the charity Blind in Business with two friends in 1992. The charity helps blind and partially sighted students into employment through free training and employment services for young people and employers. Braille is the foundation upon which my friends and I built our careers in telecommunications and the law, and it remains key to expanding opportunities today.

Progress has been made to improve the lives of visually impaired people in the last thirty years, but so much more is needed. The UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UK’s Equality Act 2010 have made discrimination on the basis of disability illegal which has helped shape a more inclusive society.

The move to a digital economy has had profound implications for the visually impaired and all people with disabilities. The development of electronic braille in particular was a game changer, followed by giants like Microsoft and Apple mainstreaming accessibility technology. Today, visually impaired people can successfully do jobs that would have been unthinkable in the past. I would not have been effective in the senior leadership roles I have held in the telecommunications and third sectors without electronic braille technology.

Mainstream social attitudes towards disabilities are also slowly changing the experience of some living with disabilities in the UK. The public is starting to have a greater appreciation of the abilities held by those of us with an impairment and what we can do. Compared to the early nineties, conversations in boardrooms have moved from “why should we care about this?” to “how can we improve this?” Nevertheless, the outlook remains challenging, first the Covid-19 pandemic and now the cost of living crisis threaten hard-won progress.

Disability rights risk being only ‘a nice to have’ for government and business against the backdrop of the pandemic and recession. Yet the last couple of years have made us all more aware of the most isolated and side-lined in society. We must re-double efforts to improve employment opportunities for all disabled people. Now is precisely the right time to do so, considering more Britons than ever understand what it can feel like to be isolated and struggling to make work pay.

I believe disability employment reporting should be mandatory. While imperfect, gender pay gap reporting has begun to be impactful in holding businesses to account. Requiring large employers to report on the roster of staff with disabilities would bring the issue to the fore, and more data on workforces would contribute to closing the disability employment gap.

The Government’s Access to Work initiative is underused and underfunded. The DWP scheme – which helps individuals with physical or mental health conditions to find or retain work – can be life-changing, when it is used and when it works. But delays in payments and a lack of knowledge amongst businesses limits its potential impact. The scheme could serve more people and grow in what it offers if its services were better known. More opportunities need to be created where employers bring people with disabilities into their workplaces as interns or trainees, with paths to permanent positions.

Such initiatives help employees with disabilities familiarise themselves with workplaces and the technology – like electronic braille – that enables them to do jobs effectively. Most importantly, it proves to employers that employees with disabilities can do the job well. We know this works. Some years ago when I worked at Leonard Cheshire, I saw first-hand how the majority of disabled participants in The Change 100 internship programme went on to permanent roles following placements.

Disabled people are eager to do their bit to contribute to economic recovery after recent chaos. As we begin 2023 facing labour shortages, it is more important than ever for people with disabilities not to feel invisible. We must not forget about such an untapped pool of resilient and creative talent, especially now that changes that could improve lives are within sight.