RNIB Scotland: The number of blind and partially sighted people who have managed to secure employment has fallen.

Roseanna Cunningham MSP, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training, has heard that the number of blind and partially sighted people who have managed to secure employment has fallen.

Visiting a training centre run by sight loss charity RNIB Scotland in Partick on Thursday [March 10th], Ms Cunningham will hear that only 23 percent of visually impaired people of working age in the UK are in paid employment, compared to 28 percent in 2005.

A contracting jobs market, especially within the public sector, and tightening of programmes that support those with disabilities find work are among the causes.

However, moves to devolve employment programmes and disability benefits to the Scottish Government could potentially create a more level playing field, says the charity.

Kate Storrow, it's employment and learning services manager, said “Blind and partially sighted people are employed in jobs as varied as teaching, IT and broadcast journalism,” she said, “but jobseekers with sight loss do need a degree of specialist support to enter the labour market. They face many barriers in gaining and retaining employment, including low confidence and expectations; transport difficulties, lack of access to skills training, limited access to assistive technology and employer misperceptions about what they are capable of.”

There are an estimated 8,500 registered blind and partially sighted people of working age in Scotland.

Ms Cunningham will visit Café Tiki, a social enterprise which employs people with sight and hearing loss, to see how RNIB Scotland has used various Scottish training funds such as Community Jobs Scotland and Employer Related Initiative to progress clients along different stages of the Scottish Government's ‘skills and employability pipeline'.

She will also meet with blind and partially sighted clients to hear what barriers they have encountered in trying to access the labour market.

Ryan Kyle (22) works as a communications development intern with the Independent Living in Scotland project. He was 16 when he first noticed his sight was deteriorating.

“I'm not ashamed to admit that it was a struggle,” he said. “It has taken me until now to come to terms with my impairment and to embrace it as part of who I am. When I left university and tried to get a job, I found that my sight loss was a hindrance to me, I didn't feel comfortable disclosing my disability. I wasn't aware of the support that was out there for blind and partially sighted people. I can't thank RNIB enough for the one-to-one support they've given me in building my confidence and getting me into employment.”

Originally published in the Vision2020 newsletter and prepared by RNIB in Scotland.