Visual Impairment and Work presents 50 brief stories focusing on the work experiences of visually impaired people. The book’s principal aim is to provide fresh insights into the factors which enable visually impaired people to find and sustain paid employment (7). It is based on a series of 50 in-depth interviews that were recorded, transcribed and then written into individual stories in collaboration with each participant (6). As the author notes, the stories have been considerably reduced so they can fit into what is a comparatively short book. However, what remains is a series of compelling accounts, highlighting the working achievements of the participants against a background of disabling barriers and prejudicial assumptions.
The book also provides a brief historical overview of the employment of visually impaired people from the eighteenth to the early twenty-first century. This is presented in Chapters 1 and 2, which form Part I of the book. As French points out in her introduction, recent surveys have found that approximately two-thirds of the United Kingdom’s visually impaired people of working age are unemployed (1), and this rather bleak state of affairs is replicated internationally, with employment rates of visually impaired people rarely exceeding a third anywhere in the world (1). What makes this all the more depressing is the widely acknowledged fact that paid employment is considered vital for an individual’s economic and social well-being, providing money, companionship, friendship, a positive and valued self-identity, and a purpose and structure to life. The importance of having a satisfying and fulfilling working career resonates throughout the individual life stories which appear in this book, with Ann’s recollections of a working life providing a typical summary of this:
Looking back, I feel satisfied with my working life, I managed to do a range of jobs including staff management and designing programmes. Parts of it stretched me intellectually which was important. I worked in a team and they tried not to isolate me … Although there were some difficult people, there were a lot of very helpful and supportive people too and I made some good and supportive friends. (94)
In Chapter 1, French provides a brief synopsis of the employment situation of people who were termed ‘blind’ in pre-twentieth-century Britain, noting that prior to industrialisation many were simply dependent on family, friends and haphazard charity. Although public records detailing the employment experiences of visually impaired people during this time are scant, there is general agreement that in the era before charitable institutions, many blind people barely survived, living a life of semi-starvation as beggars and paupers. The chapter goes on to describe the rise in the number of institutions catering for blind people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and French shows that many provided only a limited level of education and training, focusing primarily on teaching crafts and trades such as mat making, basket work, brush making, and boot and shoe making, so that inmates would be able to obtain some form of future paid employment. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of the impact on the First and Second Word Wars, the rise in protest movements and organisations run by and on behalf of blind people, and, finally, the increasing intervention from national government in the lives of blind and disabled people through the passing of disability legislation.
In Chapter 2, French looks at the more recent progress made by visually impaired people in obtaining employment in the commercial and professional sectors, and notes how access and exposure to better education was a critical factor in career success, assisted by the widespread adoption of braille. The chapter also charts the rise of physiotherapy, piano tuning, short hand and audio typing, telephony, computer programming and social work as popular professional choices for visually impaired people. Many of these are the sectors in which the participants, who share their employment stories in Part II, worked.
Part II of the book is the raison d’etre of French’s work and contains the 50 stories told by each of the study’s participants. The stories are told over the next five chapters and each chapter focuses on a particular professional sector from which the participants came. Chapter 3 looks at the experiences of 13 visually impaired men and women who worked in the health, social work, rehabilitation and social care sectors. Chapter 4 presents seven stories from those who worked in the music industry. Chapter 5 looks at careers undertaken in teaching and computing, and Chapter 6 looks at a variety of manual and commercial occupations in banks, building societies and factories. Part II ends with Chapter 7, which presents 13 stories from people who worked in a variety of professions including floristry, accountancy and law. Part II is without doubt the most compelling and interesting section of the book as it provides a series of first-hand narratives in which each participant recalls in detail aspects of their education, the prejudice they faced by people in power as they grew up, the difficulties they encountered trying to find and remain in employment, and the everyday disablist assumptions made by many employers and colleagues. The stories demonstrate the resilience of the participants and show how many have accomplished major achievements against the odds. Maureen’s story is a case in point. Having left school in 1964 at the age of 15 with no qualifications and no careers advice, she reflects on a fulfilling and varied career and the prejudicial attitudes she faced that motivated her to achieve:
The best thing I did was my PhD. I just loved it and it was such a sense of achievement. When I was ten I went to see an eye specialist who told my mother that I’d never amount to anything. I can remember walking across the stage to shake hands with the pro-vice-chancellor at the degree ceremony and thinking about that guy. In my psyche I never forgot his voice and I always thought, ‘I’ll show him’. (103)
In the final part of the book, French summarises the major themes that emerged from the participants’ stories highlighting the disabling barriers that still restrict the working lives of visually impaired people. These include limited career opportunities, with career advisors tending to direct visually impaired people towards a narrow range of low-skilled jobs. French argues there is still a pervasive attitude amongst employers that disabled people have a very limited set of capabilities, and these attitudes are often only overcome if employers have either had a previous positive experience of a visually impaired employee or if the employer is visually impaired himself/herself. Many of the participants also spoke of requiring extra time to complete work which is often not forthcoming, leaving visually impaired people compelled to catch up in their own time. Similarly, difficulties of travelling to and from work and being unable to drive were cited as barriers to obtaining and sustaining employment by many of the participants. French concludes by arguing that there is room for the Equality Act to be strengthened to encourage a change of attitudes and an increased provision for ‘reasonable adjustments’, but acknowledges ‘… there are no easy answers’ (171).
In summary, Visual Impairment and Work is a pleasure to read. The narratives, in particular, are engaging, informative, up-lifting and sometimes poignantly touching. French captures succinctly the lived experience of visual impairment and the determination of many of the participants to overcome problems and low expectations, and highlights the strategies adopted by many to negotiate the built environment and manage interactions with non-disabled employers, colleagues, friends and family alike. It is a book I strongly recommend.
Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
[email protected]
© 2017 Chris Spooner
https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1414346