Vision, Accessing Information and Accessing Benefits

199 Pages·2015·1.05 MB·English

by  Rachel Hewett

Vision, Accessing Information and
Accessing Benefits

Technical report of findings to December 2013

June 2014

Authors:

Rachel Hewett
Liz Ellis
Graeme Douglas
Sue Keil*

Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR)
The Department of Disability Inclusion and Special Needs
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, B15 2TT

*Royal National Institute of Blind People
58-72 John Bright Street
Birmingham, B1 1BN

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Contents
1 Background of the RNIB Transitions Project ....................... 19
1.1 Project Overview ................................................................ 19
1.2 Summer 2013 Catch-up interviews .................................... 21
1.3 Autumn 2013 Vision interviews .......................................... 22
2 Sample demographics and representativeness ................... 23
3 Analysis and Reporting .......................................................... 23
3.1 Data management ............................................................. 23
3.2 Analysis of questions and reporting style ........................... 24
SECTION A: LONGITUDINAL STUDY ........................................... 25
1 Current setting and plans for the future ............................... 25
1.1 Setting and plans: Summer 2013 ....................................... 25
1.2 Destination of students: Autumn 2013................................ 28
2 Individual transition pathways ............................................... 30
2.1 First year experiences at university .................................... 30
2.2 University applications ....................................................... 31
2.3 Participants seeking employment/apprenticeships, NEETs and
‘Other’ .......................................................................................... 33
2.4 Participants in employment/apprenticeships ...................... 38
2.5 Future projections for the longitudinal research .................. 45
SECTION B: VISION, ACCESSING INFORMATION AND EQUIPMENT
46
3 Vision ....................................................................................... 46
3.1 Registration of sight problems ............................................ 46
3.2 Eye conditions ................................................................... 54
3.3 Further implications of a visual impairment ........................ 62
4 Equipment and access information ...................................... 80
4.1 Glasses and contact lenses ............................................... 80
4.2 Ways of reading ................................................................. 81
4.3 Use of low vision aids ........................................................ 81
4.4 Low vision aids and preferred reading format..................... 93
4.5 Accessing written documents ............................................. 95
4.6 Accessing IT ...................................................................... 97
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5 Use of braille ........................................................................... 128
5.1 Experiences of learning braille ........................................... 128
5.2 Using braille ....................................................................... 136
5.3 Access to Information: Case Studies ................................. 146
SECTION C: ACCESSING BENEFITS ........................................... 150
6 Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence
Payments ........................................................................................ 150
6.1 Uptake of DLA and PIP ...................................................... 150
6.2 DLA awards and components ............................................ 152
6.3 How the young people use DLA ......................................... 153
6.4 Perceived importance of receiving DLA ............................. 158
6.5 Applying for DLA ................................................................ 159
6.6 Awareness and thoughts on DLA and PIP policy changes . 164
7 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................... 169
8 FUTURE PLANS ...................................................................... 174
9 APPENDIX ............................................................................... 175
9.1 Interview schedule ............................................................. 175
9.2 Exploring vision in different contexts .................................. 195
10 REFERENCES ......................................................................... 198
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the many people who have supported this
project.

Firstly, we would like to recognise the contribution given by the Visual
Impairment Support Services, Resource Bases and Special School who
assisted in the recruitment of the participants in this project, by
identifying suitable young people to take part in the research and
sending out recruitment packs to them.

We would also like to thank the participants who have agreed to take
part in this longitudinal study, and for continually giving up their time to
complete questionnaires and take part in telephone interviews.

We are very grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for funding this research,
and to Elizabeth Clery, Sue Wright, Sophie Dyment, Nicola Crews, Andy
White, Rory Cobb, Sean Owen, Pat Dyson, Louise Stimpson, Huw
Williams, Jane Leadbetter, John Harris, Terry Miles, Philippa Simkiss,
Callum Russell and Dan Williams for their guidance through the project
steering group.

A special thank you to Sue Keil from RNIB for giving so generously of
her time in being part of the project team, and to RNIB for their
continued support of the project.

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The Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to
improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and
innovation in education and social policy and also works to build
capacity in education, science and social science research. The Nuffield
Foundation has funded this project, but the views expressed are those of
the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. More
information is available at www.nuffieldfoundation.org

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Glossary
CCTV Closed circuit television

DfE Department for Education

DLA Disabled Living Allowance

DSA Disabled Students’ Allowance

DSO Disability Support Office

DWP Department for Work and Pensions

ESA Employment and support allowance

FE Further Education

HE Higher Education

ICT Information and communications technology

ILS Independent Living Skills

LVA Low vision aid

NEET Not in Education, Employment or Training

PIP Personal Independence Payment

QTVI Qualified teacher of visually impaired children

RNIB Royal National Institute of Blind People

SEN Special Educational Needs

SENCo Special Educational Needs Coordinator

Statement Statement of Special Educational Needs

UCAS Universities and Colleges Admissions Service

VI Visual Impairment
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VICTAR Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research

VTS Visiting Teacher Service

Year 11 cohort Participants were in school Year 11, aged 15-16 when
recruitment commenced in summer 2010

Year 10 cohort Participants were in school Year 10, aged 14-15 when
recruitment commenced in summer 2010

Year 9 cohort Participants were in school Year 9, aged 13-14 when
recruitment commenced in summer 2010
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Executive Summary

This research project was designed in 2009 by a team from RNIB and
VICTAR (Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research at the
University of Birmingham) in response to the Research Brief prepared by
RNIB: “Longitudinal study from age 14 of blind and partially sighted
young people in the UK”.

The key objectives of the project are:
1. To track the process of transition for blind and partially sighted young
people from age 14 for five years
2. To identify the roles of professionals involved
3. To identify the factors that improve or reduce a young person’s
chance of gaining employment

The project includes the following key phases:
1. Recruit and survey visual impairment services
2. Through these services, recruit and survey a sample of Year 9 and 11
students with visual impairment
3. Follow-up surveys of the sample of students with visual impairment

The first stage of the study took place between Autumn 2009 – March
2012, and was funded by RNIB, resulting in a number of outputs (e.g.
Hewett and Douglas, 2011a; Hewett and Douglas, 2011b, Hewett,
Douglas, Ramli, and Keil, 2012).

The second stage of the study is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and
had centred on follow-up surveys of the sample of students with visual
impairment, as described above.

This report focuses on data collected in Easter 2013 (short catch-up
interviews to establish participants’ plans for the next academic year)
and more extensive recorded telephone interviews conducted in autumn
2013. The primary focus of this wave of interviews was to get a better
understanding of the young person’s visual impairment and how they
manage this with the equipment that they use and adaptations that they
make. Questions were also asked about the young person’s experience
of disability living allowance/personal independence payments, due to
the interviews coinciding with a government restructure of this benefit
provision.

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This report is part of a series of technical reports which presents all
findings in the project so far. These technical reports will be followed by
a number of focused reports which will aim to explore key themes,
particularly making use of the longitudinal nature of the data.

In Phase One, participants were recruited in school years Year 9 and
Year 11 across the English Midlands regions and Wales, to take part in
the longitudinal study. By June 2011, 81 young people had been
recruited into the project. Due to loss of contact with some participants,
and others saying that they wished to withdraw from the project, this
number had reduced to 75 by Easter 2012.

During Easter 2012 interviews, it was found that a number of the Year
11 cohort were intending to repeat their current school year, giving us
three distinct groups:
 Year 9 cohort (moving up to Year 12)
 Year 11 cohort (repeating Year 13)
 Year 11 cohort (finishing higher education).

The decision was made at this stage to go back to the services from
which the original cohorts were recruited and ‘top-up’ the sample from
those who would have been in Year 10 at the time of initial recruitment
(hence referred to as the Year 10 cohort), and now moving into Year 13,
thus joining those participants in the Year 11 cohort who were repeating
Year 13. Over summer 2012 an additional 7 participants were recruited,
meaning a total of 80 participants within the project. By autumn 2013
there were 76 participants still involved in the research. 68 of these were
interviewed during summer 2013 and 64 during autumn 2013.

SECTION A: LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Setting and plans: Summer 2013
In summer 2013, the 68 participants interviewed were following a variety
of pathways. These included university (16), sixth form/FE college (38),
employment (6), apprenticeships (2) and those who were NEET/Other
(6). One participant who had been at university had dropped out, whilst
another had been unsuccessful in completing the first year having had
difficulties in accessing the course, but intended to repeat the following
year. Ten of the participants who were in sixth form/FE college were
looking to make the transition away from further education. Two
participants who had previously been in apprenticeships had been
offered permanent jobs within their respective companies, and four
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participants who had previously been NEET had successfully obtained
jobs/apprenticeships.

Churning
We have observed, over a number of waves of data collection, some
evidence of participants ‘churning’ within the education system. By this
we mean evidence of young people who are repeatedly taking
educational courses at the same qualification level (or even lower levels)
but not appearing to progress forwards, thus being ‘held up’ in the
system. This was evident during the 2013 interviews for 12 of the young
people.

Destination of students: Autumn 2013
At the time of the autumn 2013 interviews, of the 62 participants who
took part in the interviews, 28 were continuing in further education, 20
were at university, 6 in employment, 2 taking apprenticeships, 2 NEET,
and 4 pursuing ‘other’ options, including voluntary work.

First year experiences at university
More detailed accounts of the participants experiences of the transition
to university will be given in a forthcoming report. Of the 17 participants
who started at university in autumn 2012, two did not complete the first
year. In one case the young person dropped out because they did not
enjoy the course as much as they had anticipated, whilst the other
participant had experienced serious difficulties on the course associated
with his visual impairment. He hoped to return the following year and
repeat the first year. The fifteen remaining participants described
themselves as ‘very happy’ or ‘happy’ with their plans to continue at
university for the next academic year, whilst the young man who had
difficulties in accessing his course reported being ‘unhappy’.

University applications
Nine participants in the 2012-2013 year went through the UCAS
application system, and applied for a wide range of courses. All but one
of the students declared their visual impairment. Of these nine
participants, only 7 of them ultimately went to university in autumn 2013.
One participant did not achieve the necessary grades for his choice of
university, whilst another deferred her place in order to take a gap year
abroad.

Participants seeking employment/apprenticeships
Six participants were seeking either employment or apprenticeships at
the time of the summer 2013 interviews. These participants who had not
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