We are people too -give us a try

By Kate Smith

EDDIE Rogers has a simple ambition. He wants to be a guitar teacher. The talented 48-year-old hopes to turn his hobby into a career. But Rogers is visually impaired, and it is only now that he is training for employment at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Scotland’s Employment and Learning Centre that he has dared to try to realise his potential as a teacher. 

He slaps the canteen table and laughs in agreement as fellow student Jamie Bruce, 33, from Galston, Ayrshire, who is registered blind, gives his message to potential employers: “We are people too. Give us a try.”

Employers are reluctant to take on blind and visually impaired people. A new report by the RNIB reveals that 92% of employers think employing a visually impaired person would be “difficult or impossible” to take on.

Despite their enthusiasm, the search for a career and meaning in life can be an uphill one for people such as Rogers and Bruce.

Of the 180,000 people in Scotland who are visually impaired or blind, 73% are long-term out of work.

This figure far exceeds the unemployment rate of 55% for people with other disabilities, and is 15 times greater than the figure for the general population, according to a Scottish Executive report in 2006.

Witty, bright and intelligent, Rogers explains what he is getting from the training at the centre in Milton Road, Edinburgh.

“Being here has boosted my self-confidence simply by getting access to the technology,” says Rodgers. “It is up to employers to accept that people who are visually impaired or blind can use computers effectively. This training has made me aware I can do a job and do it well.

“Employers need to know that the technology is improving all the time. Here, we learn how to master the technology, but it is the confidence the training gives you that makes a difference,” he says.

“I feel very lucky, I’ve been on a work placement with a guitar teacher in Morningside who said I have the ability to make a success of this. That was a huge boost for me.”

After a recent work placement with the East Lothian Country Ranger Service, where he took schoolchildren on a pond visit, Bruce is also upbeat about the experience.

“It is about finding out what you’re suited to and working towards it,” says Bruce. “Ofice jobs are often closed to us. This affects the kind of jobs we look for. But this course and this training centre offers us hope. It is a lot to do with self-motivation. These classes have been inspirational.”

Bruce adds: “Just because we cannot see, it does not mean we do not have the ability to work. It is not a wall to get over like it used to be.”

One of only two such centres in the UK, the RNIB centre offers services to learners from Scotland and the north of England.

Students at the centre, in the grounds of Jewel and Esk Valley College, are given lessons in computer skills and advice on how to write a CV. Trainees here learn not only how to use computers but also specialised software which makes access easier such as screen-reading programs.

The purpose-built centre provides assessment, training for work and retraining for those who have recently lost their sight and looks after up to eight students at a time.

Former nurse Eleanor Britton, 50, from Edinburgh, has just started there. She left her job to work as a playground assistant when she became visually impaired. Now she hopes to retrain, perhaps as a medical secretary.

“I had never used a computer previously, so it’s been a revelation to me,” she said. “When I left nursing, we didn’t really use computers that much. Now they are an integral part of life.”

Despite their best efforts, staff at the centre believe there has to be a shift in attitudes in society towards blind and visually impaired people before employment prospects can improve. “It starts from an early age,” says Kate Storrow, in charge of employment at the centre.

“They are overprotected and mollycoddled by their parents, they do not meet other blind people and sometimes you find people 30 years old and they haven’t had proper experiences. This feeds into wider society, so employers are reluctant to take people on.”

The centre simply aims to enable people to aim high, she says. “We are not unrealistic; obviously, if someone said I want to be a train driver’, we would help them into work more suited to their needs.”

The RNIB says employers have nothing to fear from taking on blind people. For most potential employees, there are a few adjustments that need to be made and financial assistance is available for computer software and other help through Access to Work, part of the Department of Work and Pensions.

Most employers cite health and safety as the main reason for reluctance to employ visually impaired people. However, Nigel Townley, programme co-ordinator at the centre, said: “Health and safety is used as an excuse on lots of occasions, and we challenge that.

“We have a simple message to employers. Give them a chance. “You don’t have to treat these employees any differently from any other. The level of duty of care is the same. And, in fact, visually impaired people could be an asset to your organisation. They are less likely to take time off sick. Because they know what it’s like to be unemployed, they will remain in a job.

“They are brilliantly organised: because they cannot look around for things they have to know where they are. I think any employer would be pleasantly surprised.”

Back in the canteen, Rogers is in no doubt of the value of the course: “I am firing through the modules and with each success I grow more confident. I am sure I can attain my goals. I just need employers to listen.”