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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2017 - 07 - 23 - ID#6p4gh3
0
Question (self.Blind)
submitted by [deleted]
[deleted]
Amonwilde 4 points 6y ago
I think the question could have been posed more reasonably by asking what people do for work. Your wording implies that you expect that blind people do not work, which may or may not have been your intention.

It's true that blind people are unemployed at a higher rate than sighted people. With that said, there are a number of complicating factors, one of them being the expectation (unfortunately upheld by your question) that blind people are unfit for work. This low expectation can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as has been shown with other groups once deemed to be unfit for paid work, such as women. There are some demographic trends at work that influence employment statistics as well--blind people are more likely to be older and/or in poor health, though of course many or most VI people don't fit that profile.

Anecdotally, I've noticed that blind people tend to gravitate most toward professions like programmer, teacher, lawyer, and entrepreneur. These professions allow a higher degree of control over how work gets done. Blue collar work can be harder and can require special training, but companies like FedEx employ many blind people. VI are more likely to be their own bosses and to start their own business as well, since that gives more control and since discrimination is less of a factor. Driving is a major barrier, and blind people often do better in cities with public transportation for that reason.

This question could have been answered with a little research on Google, so you perhaps deserve a little chiding. But once asked I think questions like these need a full answer, since there are many misconceptions about what blind people are and are not able to do. I hope you'll follow up your question with some research of your own, and feel free to follow up with more questions in this thread.
KillerLag 3 points 6y ago
To add to that, organizations that provide adaptive equipment and provide support also usually hire more people with vision loss. I once had a client who was being threatened with being fired because his vision had gotten too poor to read orders coming in (he was a cook), and he didn't want to pay for a computerized system (the orders were coming in written with a pencil on paper). I pointed out that one easier adaptation was to use a felt-tip marker on a larger notepad, costing maybe an extra dollar. And that was enough for him to keep his job.

Amonwilde 1 points 6y ago
Nice save! Partly the reason the blind have a hard time at workplaces is that when they show up they expose crappy workflows that have gone unexamined for years, or misguided "security" practices that involve an old Windows XP computer sitting in a corner under s sheet. There's no reason the blind can't do these jobs, but people would have to think for two seconds straight about how these jobs get done in the first place. That's pretty unwelcome.
KillerLag 1 points 6y ago
Yeah, no kidding. I once did a workplace assessment to for a client to see what kind of adaptive technology would be able to help the client (the work was willing to pay for it, but they wanted to know what they should be getting). They had dug up an old CCTV someone had used before... it was a huge, black and white CRT CCTV, easily over 20 years old. :S It still worked (some of those old CRTs are crazy workhorses), but it was shocking that they thought that might be sufficient. It was easier for the client to use pull out her phone and use the camera to zoom.

Also, so many times, a workplace would print out braille (with a regular printer) onto a page, and assume that makes it accessible. No, that just makes dots on a page that can't be felt and is not useful.
Amonwilde 1 points 6y ago
People are so strange. There seems to be no end to the odd ideas they have about VI.

The inked braille is like this cartoon with a blind character: https://youtu.be/i7ni3Gluthc?t=17s
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