Visual Impairment and Work: Experiences of Visually Impaired People

195 Pages·2017·1.69 MB·English

by  Sally French

‘Itwouldbehardtofindanyonewhoproclaimedthemselvesagainstequalityof
opportunity,afairchanceofemployment,andanequalsociallifeforthosewith
adefineddisability.Butinpracticetherealityissomewhatdifferent.Thisismore
thanchangingattitudes;it’sthedaytodaybattlethatindividualshavetoachieve
their potential, to live independently and to gain the self-determination and
respectwhichotherstakeforgranted.ThatiswhySallyFrench,inusingrealand
potentexamples,isdoingaservicetousallinhighlightingthroughexample,not
justwhatitislikebutwhatindividualscandowithtenacity,determinationand
yes,alittlehelp!Irecommendthistoallthoseengagedinwhateverwayinterms
of diversity andworkor seeking to highlight the challenges faced byothers, in
everydaylife.’
The Rt Hon. the Lord Blunkett, U.K
‘This remarkable book documents the lives of visually impaired people in the
workplace in their own words. Uniquely, it tells stories of triumph and hard-
ship, success and struggle. It gives insight into what it takes to succeed in
employment as a disabled person in a way no textbook can do. And, it is a
riveting read.’
Jan Walmsley, The Open University, U.K
‘This is a hugely important and long-overdue contribution to our under-
standing of the barriers that visually impaired people still face when looking
for work. The most significant part of French’s study is the recommendations
for policy-makers and employers: a compelling set of suggestions for getting
more visually impaired people into work. This book is essential reading for
policy-makers, activists and employers as well as for students of disability
rights.’
Hannah Thompson, University of London, U.K
This page intentionally left blank
Visual Impairment and Work
This book traces the development of paid work for visually impaired people
intheUKfromthe18thcenturytothepresentday.Itgivesavoicetovisually
impaired people to talk about their working lives and documents the history
of employment from their experience, an approach which is severely lacking
inthecurrentliteratureaboutvisualimpairmentandemployment.Byanalysing
fifty in-depth face-to-face interviews with visually impaired people talking
about their working lives (featuring those who have worked in traditional jobs
such as telephony, physiotherapy and piano tuning, to those who have pursued
more unusual occupations and professions), and grouping them according to
occupation, framed by documentary and historical research, these stories can
be situated in their broader political, economic, ideological and cultural con-
texts. The themes that emerge will help to inform present day policy and prac-
ticewithinacontextofhighunemploymentamongstvisuallyimpairedpeople
of working age. It is part of agrowing literaturewhich gives voice to disabled
people about their own lives and which adds to the growing academic
discipline of disability studies and the empowerment of disabled people.
Sally French hasworked in highereducation since 1978 and hasworked at the
UniversityofEastLondon,TheOpenUniversity(asatutorandcourse-writer),
TheUniversityofWinchesterandHatfieldUniversity,allintheUK.
Interdisciplinary Disability Studies
Series editor: Mark Sherry, The University of Toledo, USA
Disability studies has made great strides in exploring power and the body.
This series extends the interdisciplinary dialogue between disability studies
and other fields by asking how disability studies can influence a particular
field. It will show how a deep engagement with disability studies changes our
understanding of the following fields: sociology, literary studies, gender stu-
dies, bioethics, social work, law, education, or history. This ground-breaking
series identifies both the practical and theoretical implications of such an
interdisciplinarydialogue andchallenges people indisability studiesaswell as
other disciplinary fields to critically reflect on their professional praxis in
terms of theory, practice, and methods.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/
ASHSER1401
Forthcoming:
Disability and Social Media
Global Perspectives
Edited by Mike Kent and Katie Ellis
Visual Impairment and Work
Experiences of Visually Impaired People
Sally French
Disability, Society and Assistive Technology
Bodil Ravneberg and Sylvia Söderström
Disability and Rurality
Identity, Gender and Belonging
Karen Soldatic and Kelley Johnson
Pedagogy, Disability and Communication
Applying Disability Studies in the Classroom
Edited by Michael Jeffress
Visual Impairment and Work
Experiences of Visually Impaired People
Sally French
K ~~o~;J~n~~~up
ORKYOR LLONODONNLODNDOONN
Y
LONDONANDNEWYORK
Firstpublished2017
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2017SallyFrench
TherightofSallyFrenchtobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbyherinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation
withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:French,Sally,author.
Title:Visualimpairmentandwork:experiencesofvisuallyimpaired
people/SallyFrench.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2017.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016036639|ISBN9781472455420(hardback)|
ISBN9781315569536(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Peoplewithvisualdisabilities--Employment--Great
Britain.|Peoplewithdisabilities--Employment--GreatBritain.|Sociologyof
disability--GreatBritain.
Classification:LCCHV1945.F742017|DDC331.5/910941--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016036639
ISBN:978-1-4724-5542-0(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-56953-6(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
PARTI
Visually Impaired People and Employment: An Historical
Overview 11
1 Manual work and the workshops 13
2 Professional and commercial work 29
PARTII
The Stories 41
3 Careers in health, social work, rehabilitation and social care 43
4 Careers in music 74
5 Careers in teaching and computing 89
6 Manual and commercial occupations 111
7 Miscellaneous careers and occupations 128
PARTIII
Summary and Conclusion 159
8 Commonality and diversity: insights from the stories 161
References 174
Index 182
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone who contributed their stories to this book;
althoughIamthenamedauthorthebookisasmuchtheirsasmine.Iwouldalso
like to thank the staff at the RNIB Research Library for their assistance and
everyonewhohelpedtolocatepeopletobeinterviewed.Finally,Iwouldliketo
thank Maureen Gilman, who conducted some of the interviews, and everyone
whohelpedmetounderstandthehistoryofblindnessandemployment.
Introduction
Amajoraimofthisbookistogaininsightintohowvisuallyimpairedpeoplein
Britain obtain and sustain their employment. This is in the context of persis-
tently low employment rates for visually impaired people. A further aim is to
present anhistoricalrecord ofemploymentfor visuallyimpairedpeoplebytra-
cing their working lives from the eighteenth to the early twenty-first centuries.
Thisisachievedbymeansofdocumentaryresearchand50in-depthinterviews.
Visual impairment and employment
Bruce et al. (1991), in a survey by the Royal National Institute for the Blind
(RNIB), showed that just 25 per cent of visually impaired people of working
age were employed and that most adults who acquired a visual impairment
while in work lost their jobswithin six months of doing so. This situation has
not improved significantly; Douglas et al. (2006, 2009), Saunders et al. (2013)
andSaunders(2015)foundthatapproximatelytwothirdsofvisuallyimpaired
people of working age were unemployed. Slade and Edwards (2015) found
that just 28 per cent of visually impaired people of working age were
employed and that 4 per cent were students. Low employment of visually
impaired people is a global phenomenon with employment rates rarely
exceeding a third anywhere in the world (Humanity 2015:5). Omansky states
that, ‘Employment figures, as well as prospects for future employment, of
blind and visually impaired people are dismal in every country across the
globe’ (2006:187). People with other impairments also experience low
employment rates. As Schriner states:
No matter whether they live in the most prosperous nations of the world
or the least, people with disabilities are among the most economically
disadvantaged groups in society…people with disabilities are almost
universallyon the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder (2001:644–5).
It is difficult to compare the employment rates of visually impaired people
over time and place because visual impairment is defined differently and may
or may not include those with additional impairments who comprise a large