Visually Impaired People's Access To Employment: Summary Of Findings, UK

Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness
Article Date: 08 Mar 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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This summary report presents findings from Network 1000 Survey 2. The data was collected during interviews with 503 visually impaired people of working age between November 2006 and January 2007. All the participants were registered as either blind or partially sighted and lived in Great Britain. Sampling and analysis accounted for the age distribution of the visually impaired population.

The summary focuses upon data relating to employment. A full report is available on the VISION 2020 UK website listed at the end of this document.

The report presents data in relation to:

1) Overview of employment status;
2) Services received by those currently in work;
3) People who are not in work;
4) Barriers and enablers to employment.

1. Overview of employment status

Overall employment rates

Employment rate amongst the population of working age people who are registered blind or partially sighted is estimated as 33%. This figure is approximately the same as the estimate based on Network 1000 Survey 1 (2005). In terms of differences across ages, the highest proportion of respondents in employment is found in the 30-49 age group (44%) then the 18-29 group (at 33%) and the lowest proportion in the 50-64 group (only 22%).

People who described themselves as 'long term sick or disabled' are the biggest group within the working aged visually impaired population (36%). Again this is linked with age - 17%, 32% and 45% in the 18-29, 30-49 and 50-64 age groups respectively. The overall proportion of people who described themselves as 'long term sick or disabled' has grown since Survey 1.

As we might expect, respondents in the 18-29 category were much more likely to classify themselves as a student (22%) than in the other two age groups, but also unemployment was higher in this age group (22% compared with around 10% in other age groups, and overall 12%). High proportions of people aged between 50 and 64 years of age described themselves as retired (19%) although they were not old enough to receive a state pension.

The employment rate amongst visually impaired people is very low compared to the general working age population. Overall, three quarters of the general population reported being in some form of employment (General Household Survey 2006; ONS, 2008). Visually impaired individuals of working age are much more likely to describe themselves as being unemployed, long term sick or disabled, or retired than those in the general population.

VISION 2020 UK

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