Category: Let's talk
When I saw the post about the percentage of blind people who don’t work and the resulting comments I started thinking. Nobody is really sure where these figures come from, how recent they are or what fields they cover. I mean come on, of course you can produce a survey stating that “90% Of School Children See Marilyn Manson As Their Role Model” if you only give the options of him, Napoleon and Ghandi, so I thought I’d try and shed a little light with a survey of our own.
Albeit still unscientific, hopefully it will give us a better idea of how the land lies today, based on our community. So please take the survey below. If you’d rather not post publicly then send me a private email (via my profile). In fact it might be better for you all to do it this way. I wont keep the information after I’ve collated the results, and it definitely wont be shared with anybody. I’ll leave it open for a month and then post the results in June. And yes, of *course* I’ll answer publicly…
1. How do you class yourself: Blind or Visually Impaired
2. Are you dual-disabled? Yes or No
3. Your Gender
4. Are you blind or Visually Impaired from birth? Yes or No
5. Your age group: under 18 / 18-25 / 26-33/ 34-41 / 42-49 / 49-60 / 60+
6. Your location (country; state, county or province is optional)
7. Your level of education (eg high or secondary school / further education / college or university / postgraduate / other)
8. Type of education system (mainstream / specialist / mixed)
9. Work Status: Too young / Studying / Unemployed / Full-Time / Part-Time / Self-employed / Retired
10. What industry do you work in?
11. How did you get your current job? (eg open market, recommendation, government or other support/training scheme/self-started)
12. Is your ideal job within your current field?
13. If you’re not working, what is the main reason for this (eg environment, can’t find a job, can’t be bothered/not worth working etc)
14. If you choose not to work, why is this?
15. What is the single worst case of employment-related discrimination you have personally experienced?
16. What is the most forward-thinking or positive assistance you have received in employment or while looking for work?
17. What single thing would improve your chances of getting work, moving to a more fulfilling employment role or looking for work?
18. Do you believe your upbringing/education adequately prepared you for living and working in the open market? (Yes, No, Partly, Don’t know)
Damnit! I *knew* I'd do this! Missed a question, didn't I?!
19. Level of employment: Unskilled / Skilled / Professional / Director / Other
1. How do you class yourself: Visually Impaired
2. Are you dual-disabled? No
3. Your Gender; Male
4. Are you blind or Visually Impaired from birth? Yes
5. Your age group: 34-41
6. Your location: London, England
7. Your level of education: college or university
8. Type of education system: mixed
9. Work Status: Full-Time
10. What industry do you work in? Local government
11. How did you get your current job? open market
12. Is your ideal job within your current field? No
13. If you’re not working, what is the main reason for this: Not applicable
14. If you choose not to work, why is this?: Not applicable
15. What is the single worst case of employment-related discrimination you have personally experienced?: At interview, being told I was being seen because I would help to meet their targets
16. What is the most forward-thinking or positive assistance you have received in employment or while looking for work? Being fully involved and consulted in adapting my work environment
17. What single thing would improve your chances of getting work, moving to a more fulfilling employment role or looking for work?: Getting motivated!
18. Do you believe your upbringing/education adequately prepared you for living and working in the open market? Partly, but much better than many
19. Level of employment: Professional
1. How do you class yourself: Blind or Visually Impaired
blind
2. Are you dual-disabled? Yes or No
yes
3. Your Gender
male
4. Are you blind or Visually Impaired from birth? Yes or No
no
5. Your age group: under 18 / 18-25 / 26-33/ 34-41 / 42-49 / 49-60 / 60+
34-41
6. Your location (country; state, county or province is optional)
Mid Glamorgan, (Wales, UK).
7. Your level of education (eg high or secondary school / further education / college or university / postgraduate / other)
Secondary school
8. Type of education system (mainstream / specialist / mixed)
specialist
9. Work Status: Too young / Studying / Unemployed / Full-Time / Part-Time / Self-employed / Retired
unemployed
10. What industry do you work in?
n/a
11. How did you get your current job? (eg open market, recommendation, government or other support/training scheme/self-started)
n/a
12. Is your ideal job within your current field?
no, of course not, I want to work.
13. If you’re not working, what is the main reason for this (eg environment, can’t find a job, can’t be bothered/not worth working etc)
stabilizing from illness
14. If you choose not to work, why is this?
n/a
15. What is the single worst case of employment-related discrimination you have personally experienced?
n/a
16. What is the most forward-thinking or positive assistance you have received in employment or while looking for work?
Being consulted about which adaptive technology I need.
17. What single thing would improve your chances of getting work, moving to a more fulfilling employment role or looking for work?
a higher level of education
18. Do you believe your upbringing/education adequately prepared you for living and working in the open market? (Yes, No, Partly, Don’t know)
no
19. Level of employment: Unskilled / Skilled / Professional / Director / Other
unskilled, at the moment
Hi people. I've not had many responses to the survey. Maybe you don't want to take it, fair enough. But I thought I'd bring it back to the top just in case you haven't seen it ...
1. How do you class yourself: Blind
2. Are you dual-disabled? No
3. Your Gender, female
4. Are you blind or Visually Impaired from birth? Yes, but became total in my teens.
5. Your age group: 26-33.
6. Your location, Northern Ireland
7. Your level of education, Higher,
8. Type of education system mixed
9. Work Status: full time volunteer
10. What industry do you work in? Fundraising
11. How did you get your current job? self-started)
12. Is your ideal job within your current field? Yes
13. If you’re not working, what is the main reason for this?
14. If you choose not to work, why is this?
15. What is the single worst case of employment-related discrimination you have personally experienced? Being told I couldn't apply for a job, let alone get the job, because there were stairs in the office! And the disability employment adviser at the job centre just saying oh ok then and leaving it at that!
16. What is the most forward-thinking or positive assistance you have received in employment or while looking for work? I really don't know, most agencies I tried for help were more than useless.
17. What single thing would improve your chances of getting work, moving to a more fulfilling employment role or looking for work? The charity I work for getting funding to pay me!
18. Do you believe your upbringing/education adequately prepared you for living and working in the open market? Partly
19. Level of employment, don't know
1. How do you class yourself? Blind
2. Dual Disability? Yes, cerebral palsy
3. Gender: Female
4. Blind or visually impaired from birth? Yes
5. Age Group: 18-25
6. Location: 29 Palms California
7. Level of Education: Completed High School, some college
8. Type of education system: Mixed
9. Work Status: Unemployed
10. Industry: N/A
11. How did you get your current job? N/A
12. Is your ideal job within your current field? N/A
13. If you're not working, what is the reason for this?
Lack of experience, lack of college education, lack of reliable transportation, apo have an infant son
14. If you're choosing not to work, why is this?
Part of my reason for not working is not something I can help, but one of the main reasons I'm not working is so that I can fully devote myself to being a mom to my son. My philosophy is, I did not have a child sto be raised by someone else.
15. Single worst case of discrimination you've experienced?
Being told that by taking door-to-door service (because of my CP), I was giving the blind workers at the facility a bad rep for not taking the train system where I used to live.
16. What is the most positive experience you recieved while employed or looking for work? When I worked as an intern at a blind school, I was treated like I knew what I "was doing; I was respected, shown what to do, where to go, and who to work with.
17. What single qing would improve your chances of getting work? Better transportation
18. Do you believe your upbringing/education adequately prepared you?
No, not at all.
19. Level of employment? Unemployed.
20.
Unfortunately I only had 5 responses during May, not nearly enough to get a decent snapshot, so thankyou to those who did respond, I guess it's just not to be! If you sent me an email, I will of course delete it.