Navigating work like a blind person

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Amit Patel graduated from Cambridge University and qualified as an Accident and Emergency Physician. But his training didn’t prepare him for what happened next.

During her studies, she was diagnosed with keratoconus, a condition that affects the shape of the front of the eye, but can be treated with corneal transplant surgery. However, Patel was one of the few people who had their transplanted tissue rejected and went blind overnight after hemorrhaging behind his eyes.

“I had to relearn how to live with the loss of my sight; simple things like how to make a cup of tea became a planning journey,” says Patel. “I was afraid to go out and I didn’t leave my house for three months. I needed a reason to wake up, I needed to get back into society. I knew I could do this and a big part of that was work.”

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He is one of 340,000 people in the UK who are blind or partially sighted. but a 2019 study For charity, the Royal National Institute for the Blind found that the employment rate for people who are blind or partially sighted was 27 percent, compared to 51 percent among people with other disabilities and 76 percent for the general population. .

The study also found that there were no significant changes in employment rates for blind people compared to a similar study in 1991.

Investigation conducted in Northern Ireland by the RNIB and the University of Birmingham found that the biggest barriers to employment for people with vision loss were misconceptions about their ability, inaccessible recruitment practices and insufficient support in the workplace. Workplace.

For Patel, crucial support came from his “incredible” wife Seema, with whom he has two children. He used to joke that he couldn’t have dinner until he did his Braille exercises. A guide dog, Kika, helped him navigate rush hour on London public transport and a video camera was attached to record discrimination that Patel could not see, such as being deliberately ignored by station staff. He learned to use a screen reader to navigate documents and the Internet and eventually began looking for administrative jobs.

“Getting access to a job opening is the first hurdle facing a person with vision loss,” says Martin O’Kane, Strategic Leader for Employment and Technology at RNIB. “Websites are often not accessible: they are poorly structured without screen readers or magnifying software.”

RNIB advises employers who are unable to adapt their own websites to use recruitment websites that meet the accessibility test for vision loss, such as Afternoon rest.

For Patel, however, it was only when he “excluded his disability from the applications” that he was called in for interviews. “I remember the first interview they called me for,” he says. “They didn’t know what to do with me when I asked them to describe the room before I started. I didn’t get the job because, in his words, I hadn’t told them that I was blind on the application and that I wouldn’t be a good fit for them.”

O’Kane says that “employers not understanding the ability level of a person with vision loss is a barrier, but making simple adjustments can help a person with vision loss get and keep a job.” The RNIB estimates that 11,000 people with vision loss are currently looking for work.

UK government Regime of Access to Work aims to help people find and keep a job if they have a disability, by funding travel and equipment costs, as well as a job coach to help people make a smooth transition to the workplace.

But Patel argues that “even with government support, the onus is on employers, because the biggest barrier people with vision loss face is the assumption that we can’t do the things in the job ad because we can’t see.” . These negative attitudes must change to adopt the willingness to adapt to our needs with simple things like screen readers and specialized keyboards.

Coming to terms with his sight loss, Patel has been self-employed as an inclusion and diversity consultant and motivational speaker, wrote a book called “Kika and Me” and now works on the TV show. dog squad on CBBC channel.

She plans to build an outdoor wooden kitchen this year with her two children, ages three and seven, and Kika. “With three sets of eyes helping me, I’m pretty sure the wood will level up,” she laughs.

“When I faced barriers trying to get a job, I used to spin my mind. Now, I look for challenges in making those changes: the workplace becomes safer when you train a workforce with practical knowledge to help blind people.”