WESTMINSTER INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN TASHKENT

Report

Title: Employability of visually impaired people

Word count: 2003

Abstract

People with disabilities have always been discriminated at labour market since employers have doubts

regarding their performance and productivity in the workplace. Unsighted people are not an exception. Thus,

the employment rate of visually impaired (VI) people might be decreasing; meaning the likelihood of them

being employed is very low. Due to this trend, the research was conducted to estimate the willingness of

employers in Tashkent to provide VI people with a job. The willingness was measured through online

questionnaire, which included 8 questions. Findings suggest that most of Tashkent employers are ready to not

only accept VI people but also provide them with proper conditions and a high salary; therefore, unemployed

people with visual loss should be informed about their high chance of taking a job.

Introduction

There is a common and damaging stereotype about blindness among people. The stereotype is the belief that

people with poor functional vision are highly limited in terms of job opportunities.

Slade et al. (2017) stated that likelihood of people with visual impairment to be employed is notably less than

chances of the general population or people with other disabilities in spite of identical qualification.

Specifically, only a quarter of working age people with poor functional vision or complete blindness is in

employment in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2016).

The purpose of this report analyses is to expose the willingness of employers to recruit unsighted individuals,

by collecting their opinion and based on the collected data, provide further recommendations for potential

employers and individuals with poor vision, what therefore can obtain benefits from the carried out

investigation.

Research is intended to illustrate main criteria necessary for blind people to be employed and benefits of them.

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Literature review

Factors affecting employability of visually impaired people

Various studies indicated that there are numerous factors affecting employability of people with poor functional

vision on hiring process. Whereas some researchers (Bell and Mino, 2015) found that gender and ethnicity are

vital components in determining occupation status, Slade et al. (2017) stated that those factors do not appear to

be significantly linked to employment status.

Clements et al. (2011) conducted a study on impact of registration status (as blind or visually impaired) to

employability and found that legally blind or visually impaired individuals are more likely to have a job.

Slade et al. (2017), Bell and Mino (2015) reported that level of qualification and age of blind and partially

sighted people plays a major role in being in employment.

Interestingly, blind people may have better chances to get a job through demonstration of positive attitude to

visual disability by being open to discuss visual condition with co-workers and employers (Joseph and

Robinson, 2012).

Benefits of hiring visually impaired people

Currently, for most organizations, diverse workforce plays a key role in company’s productivity and it can be

achieved by employing legally blind people. The conducted research by Mississippi State University (2013),

demonstrates that legally blind individuals compared to general population with college degrees, strive to be

more educated, what is crucial today for most companies. Furthermore, they determined that the ability of good

problem solvers and creative thinkers can be expected from blind people, as they find it indispensable for

coping with disability in a visual world.

Mississippi State University detected that in some states according to the law, the companies which recruit

legally blind individuals are provided with tax credit of up to $2,400 by Vocational Rehabilitation government

agency.

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According to Zharare (1984), visually impaired candidates are more tend to be present on the workplace

permanently during work hours, by proving their willingness and the work performance of people with poor

functional vision surpasses that of abled bodies, due to high concentration on their work. Therefore, employers

are benefited from the loyalty and reliability of poor sighted individuals. Zharare indicated that people with

visual impairment are less likely to switch job position, because of job offer limitation (cited in Munemo and

Tom, 2013, p211).

However, in accordance with Jacko et al. (2010), some employers have negative attitudes and misconceptions

about legally blind people and understanding these negative perceptions, individuals with low vision can lose

personal satisfaction as well as self-concept and self-esteem.

Methodology

Data for the research was obtained through sampling employers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan with the help of online

questionnaire, the link of which was primarily distributed though Telegram messenger to employers, who

worked in the government and different private companies. The questionnaire was designed with the aid of

“Google Forms”, which allow the respondents to feel confidential about their answers (anonymity has been

retained), and to ease the analyzation of results, since all responses are shown in the form of diagrams.

Demographic questions were not included in the questionnaire because this information was not necessary to

answer the research question. The total number of respondents accounted for 106. As employers did not

understand English language, Russian version of questionnaire was given. Questionnaire consisted of 8

questions that were specifically designed to address the research question “How are Tashkent employers ready

to hire visually impaired people?” and a copy of the questionnaire is attached to the appendices part.

Results

In this section, the responses of Tashkent employers, who partook in our questionnaire, are illustrated.

106 employers were asked to fill the questionnaire to explore whether employers in Tashkent are ready to

recruit visually impaired people or not.

According to the results of our questionnaire, more than half of employers in Tashkent are ready to

provide people with visual loss with jobs (56%), while only 7% of participants do not want to do that, and 37%

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said that they are not sure. Moreover, 67% of respondents agreed to create favorable conditions for visually

impaired people to increase their productivity in the workplace, while 19% are not sure about that, and 14%

said “no”. (Refer to Appendix A to see diagram 1 and 2).

Participants were also asked whether they believe in the ability of people with poor vision to contribute

to the business or enterprise of employers. Almost 62% of employers participated answered that they consider

visually impaired people as potential employees, who can help enterprise or business develop, while 8% of

respondents do not think that those people with disabilities could do so, whereas 30% of them are not sure. The

questionnaire included the question about the preferred age of blind people, and more than half of employers

said that the age does not matter, whereas 17% preferred 36 and over and 17% opted for 23-35, 9% rejected to

hire VI people and only 5% preferred 17-22. (Refer to Appendix B to see diagram 3 and 4)

This was followed by a question about the gender and just over four-fifths (81%) of respondents said

that they do not care about the gender, while 9% of respondents do not prefer to hire people with visual loss at

all. Remaining two answers such as male and female both accounted for 5%. (Refer to Appendix C to see

diagram 5)

The method, with the help of which, employers prefer to assess blind people before providing them with

a job was also taken into account. 70% of recruiters preferred interview and 16% chose special tests. Only 5%

opted for resume, however, 9% refused to hire people with visual loss. (Refer to Appendix C to see diagram 6)

The last two questions were open-ended, one of which asked employers about what type of job they are

ready to offer to people with visual disabilities. Although many different types of jobs were mentioned (support

team member, manager, CEO, packager, etc.), the most preferred one was the position at call center (more than

35 responses).

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The last question was about the amount of salary, which employers are willing to offer. 40 out of 106 employers

were ready to pay from 500.000 to 800.000 sums per month, which comprised of the highest percentage among

other bids, which were from 1M to 2M (30 responses), the same trend was for 2.1M-3M as well. Finally, only 6

employers stated that the salary would be in accordance with the experience which VI people have.

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Discussion

This section of our research was conducted to reveal differences and similarities of our research group’s

analysis with previous studies and present key findings. This part will also include the limitations of our

research.

The main purpose of the research was to identify the readiness of Tashkent employers to hire poor sighted

people. It is notable that despite discrimination of VI people regarding their employability in the United

Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2016), in accordance with the results of our study, 60 employers in

Tashkent (among 106) were ready to recruit this part of society. Moreover, VI people in Tashkent are welcomed

in the workplace with equal rights and chances as well as in global corporations and organizations, which can

be summarized by answers of our respondents. Employers answered that they believe that unsighted people

may contribute to the development of their companies. Additionally, they offered various jobs, such as workers

at call center, packagers, psychologists, teachers, secretaries and suggested reasonable salary for those people.

Next, according to our investigations, gender of people with visual impairment is not linked with main criteria

in the process of hiring. Similarly, study of Slade et al. (2017) indicated that this factor did not determine the

occupation status of VI people. Interestingly, whereas Bell and Mino (2015) noted that the age of people with

poor functional vision plays a major role in recruiting, our team found that for most Tashkent employers (64)

the age of blind people does not matter. According to previous studies (Mississippi State University, 2013),

there are various benefits for both employers and unsighted workers, specifically creativity, eagerness to study,

high productivity and loyalty at work of VI people might lead to the development of a company. Hence, most

respondents (67%) in the current study demonstrated their enthusiasm regarding the creation of favorable work

conditions for VI people to motivate and increase the productivity of workers.

Ultimately, it is significant to mention limitations regarding primary data collection, as our task was to examine

the employability of people with poor functional vision solely through the analysis of Tashkent employers’

tendency towards accepting them at work. Initially, interview was considered as a tool of obtaining primary

data, which brought about some difficulties, since it was hard to gain access to VI people due to the lack of

time. Thus, the data acquisition was limited to online questionnaire of employers only.

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Conclusion

To summarize, this research was intended to examine the readiness of Tashkent employers to recruit VI people.

There are diverse factors, such as gender, qualification, occupation and registration status, which affect the

likelihood of poor sighted people to be employed. Field observation contributed to the detection of various

benefits for both potential employers and employees with special needs in the form of governmental incentives,

diversity of employees, and loyalty to the organization. By investigating the previously conducted studies, and

answers of 106 participants of the questionnaire, differences and similarities regarding hiring criteria, readiness

of society and awareness of benefits of local and worldwide employers were revealed. It can be inferred that

people with visual impairment have ability and chances to have jobs.

Recommendations

First of all, implementation of lower taxation policy or tax credits for companies which have people with

disabilities might encourage local employers to hire people with poor functional vision. Next point is creating

favorable work condition for convenience of VI people. To exemplify, employers may set up maps with

Braille’s alphabet (a tactile writing system written with embossed paper) or provide electronic support using

refreshable Braille’s displays, various musical equipments that help to navigate at workplaces. As most

Tashkent employers are ready to recruit unsighted workers, they should be aware of this opportunity,

consequently social organizations might inform VI people about potential vacancies. Finally, motivation of

people with visual impairment to have a job through guest lectures by sharing with experience or demonstration

of willingness of employers to hire them.

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Reference List

 Bell, E. and Mino, N. (2015). Employment Outcomes for Blind and Visually Impaired Adults. Journal

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 Clements, B., Douglas, G. and Pavey S. (2011). Which factors affect the chances of paid employment

for individuals with visual impairment in Britain? National Center for Biotechnology Information,

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2019].
 Jacko, V., Cobo, H., Cobo, A., Fleming, R., and Moore, E. (2010). Mainstream employment in music

production for individuals who are visually impaired. Journal of visual impairment and Blindness,

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 Joseph, M. and Robinson, M. (2012). Vocational experiences of college-educated individuals with

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https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-2865537391/vocational-experiences-of-college-educated-

individuals [Accessed 16 March 2019].

 Mississippi State University (2013). Blind People Can’t Perform This Job. National Technical

Assistance Center On Blindness And Visual Impairment. Available from

https://www.blind.msstate.edu/docs/McDonnall-Blind_people_can't_perform_this_job.pdf [Accessed 26

March 2019].
 Munemo, E. and Tom, T. (2013). Problems of Unemployment Faced by Visually Impaired People.

Greener Journal of Social Sciences, 3(4), 203-219. Available from

http://www.gjournals.org/GJSC/GJSC%20PDF/2013/April/Munemo%20and%20Tom.pdf [Accessed 28

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 Office for National Statistics (2016). Statistical bulletin: UK Labour Market: February 2016. Office for

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%20market&page=4 [Accessed 13 March 2019].

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 Slade, J., Edwards, E. and White, A. (2017). Employment status and sight loss. RNIB. Available from

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%202017.pdf [Accessed 13 March 2019].

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