i. Guide Dogs is the UK’s largest charitable provider of services for children and young people with vision impairment (VI). We provide a range of services including information, advice and guidance, assistive technology products and support, and large print books through our CustomEyes service.
ii. We also deliver habilitation support through contracts held with local authorities and some schools. Guide Dogs is a leading provider of habilitation services in the UK. Habilitation is the training and support needed for blind and partially sighted children and young people to gain skills they need to move around independently. It includes mobility skills, special orientation, auditory skills, navigation skills and independent living skills.
iii. Alongside our services, we campaign to remove barriers that prevent blind and partially sighted people living the life they choose.
iv. Recommendation: The Government must work with employers and the sight loss sector to tackle the barriers that young people with a vision impairment face when looking for employment, to ensure application processes are accessible, and that employers are aware of and are providing the support that people with a vision impairment require.
v. Recommendation: The CFVI should be embedded in government policy and sit alongside the national curriculum so that every child and young person with a vision impairment has access to the specialist support they need for their education and transition to employment.
vi. Recommendation: Children and young people should be able to access consistent, local, specialist habilitation support that they need, at the right age, in order to enable them to reach their full potential when they enter the workforce.
vii. Recommendation: Public transport must provide consistent and sufficient accessibility options for vision impaired people, and ensure staff are fully trained and knowledgeable about how to support individuals on their journey, including ensuring staff are available to support vision impaired people directly at stations.
viii. Recommendation: Schools and other career support bodies need to ensure their guidance and approach can be tailored towards the specific needs of a young person with vision impairment, rather than providing a pan-disability approach – including when exploring work-experience opportunities, to ensure young people with a vision impairment have the tools and assistance to support their aspirations.
ix. Recommendation: We would like to see action taken to significantly reduce the time taken for Access to Work applications to be processed, to ensure this doesn’t present an additional barrier to young people with a vision impairment from entering the workforce, and supports their transition.
x. Vision impairment is a low-incidence, high needs condition. It is estimated that there are around 41,000 CYP with sight loss across the UK, with approximately 28,670 CYP aged 0-17[1]. Children and young people who are blind and partially sighted are often not able to access the specialist support they need to reach their potential. Statistically, children and young people with vision impairment are likely to have lower academic attainment[2], and have a higher chance of being outside of employment during adulthood with only around 25% in employment, compared to 52.6% for disabled people generally and 82.5% for non-disabled people[3].
1.1. There are multiple barriers that young people with a vision impairment face when entering the job market. RNIB found that the most common barriers to gaining work cited by blind and partially sighted people related to the employer’s approach. For example; inaccessible recruitment processes (36%), such as websites not being compatible with assistive technology; poor employer attitudes (35%) and; poor employer support (32%)[4]. This aligns with what people with vision impairment have told Guide Dogs, where they have outlined the importance of employers being aware and knowledgeable of what support and processes are required for applicants with a vision impairment, and expressed concern over the lack of investment from employers to provide this support.
1.2. The barriers people with a vision impairment face are different to those experienced by other disabled people. For example, people with a vision impairment are more likely to need technology designed for their particular job, such as adapted laptops, screens or audio equipment. This is often owned by an employer and isn’t transferable between jobs, leaving applicants reliant on the organisation’s ability to provide these. In addition, someone may need orientation training to and around their new workplace, or may benefit from an access assistant to help with admin or moving around. Steps must be taken to address these barriers as the employment rate for blind and partially sighted people (25%) is lower than that of disabled people generally (52.6%) and the working age population as a whole (82.5%).[5].
1.3. Recommendation: The Government must work with employers and the sight loss sector to tackle the barriers that young people with a vision impairment face when looking for employment, to ensure application processes are accessible, and that employers are aware of and are providing the support that people with a vision impairment require.
1.4. Research shows that children and young people with a vision impairment are also likely to have lower academic attainment from the early years through to Key Stage 4: at the end of key Stage 4, 48.7% of students with vision impairment as the primary SEN gained GCSE grade 4 or above in English and maths, compared to 64.4% of all pupils. This is likely to have a negative impact of their ability to secure employment when they leave education.
1.5. The Curriculum Framework for Vision Impairment (CFVI) has been developed to support children and young people with vision impairment access an appropriate and equitable education to address this gap. The CVFI also recognises the importance of supporting children and young people to prepare for their lives after compulsory education, for example: “Specialist input to careers education, information and guidance, including supporting volunteering/work experience opportunities, searching for and applying for jobs, disclosing vision impairment, preparing for interviews, supporting work experience placements [6].”
1.6. Despite consensus on the importance of specialist education, there has been no consistent UK wide approach for professionals and parents to support children and young people with vision impairment.
1.7. In research Guide Dogs conducted in 2020 with parents of children and young people with a vision impairment, just 18% described themselves as ‘very satisfied’ with the support their child receives in school, while 25% described themselves as ‘very unsatisfied’. Around a fifth of parents reported they had tried and been unable to access a Qualified Teacher for the Visual Impaired[7].
1.8. Recommendation: The CFVI should be embedded in government policy and sit alongside the national curriculum so that every child and young person with a vision impairment has access to the specialist support they need for their education and transition to employment.
1.9. Another key factor in young people’s success transitioning from education to employment relates to the level of habilitation support they have received, and the age at which this support starts. Our response to question ‘1a’ expands further on the benefits that habilitation support provides.
1.11. One of the main challenges in accessing the workplace for young people with a vision impairment relates to their mobility and ability to navigate the journey to work, working environment and equipment. Therefore, their ability or inability to accessing sufficient habilitation support - specialist support, advice and guidance to gain the skills they need to maximise their independence – can present a barrier to their success.
1.12. Habilitation support prepares children and young people with the mobility and independent living skills they need to thrive in further study and employment. The specialist support is provided by Qualified Habilitation Specialists within an educational setting (from nursery all the way through to university and postgraduate study), in public spaces and in the home.
1.13. Habilitation Specialists teach movement and mobility skills including spatial awareness, long cane use and independent living skills e.g. cooking, personal care, social skills and purchasing goods[8], which can be instrumental in a young person’s transition to employment. This support is needed at different times as the young person transitions to the next stage of their development and/or education setting, but the earlier this support is received the greater benefit it will have.
1.14. However, there are serious challenges for children with getting the right level of support they need. One in eight children and young people who require essential habilitation support are not receiving it, impacting both their academic and social development[9]. In addition, support levels can vary significantly by Local Authority. For example, one local authority provided habilitation support to 3% of the children and young people with a vision impairment in their area, while another provided this service to 47%. This lack of uniformity in service levels is a picture reflected across the country. In addition, local authorities are less likely to offer habilitation support for older young people (16+) than any other group, at a time when they’re about the enter the workforce[10].
1.15. Without the right specialist support during childhood, young people with a vision impairment will face additional barriers accessing the workplace. This can be because they may not have the independent living skills to travel independently, or may lack socialisation and confidence skills to interview for a job. Without sufficient and consistent habilitation support, children and young people are more likely to be at a disadvantage when entering the workforce.
1.16. Recommendation: Children and young people should be able to access consistent, local, specialist habilitation support that they need, at the right age, in order to enable them to reach their full potential when they enter the workforce.
1.17. Transport also presents another barrier for young people entering into employment. Public transport is typically very sight-based, with wide ranging levels of accessibility between urban and rural areas. It can be inaccessible in a variety of ways, from physical restrictions such as having to book support for journeys in advance, or a lack of audio-visual equipment on trains and buses, to attitudes of the public and staff.
1.18. Guide Dogs research found[11]:
Around 2 in 5 (38%) vision impaired people are not confident moving around outside their home
Only 37% of vision impaired people manage to leave the home by themselves on a daily basis
53% rely on support to get around outside the home.
1.19. These barriers to navigation and travel can significantly limit the range of employment opportunities that are open to people with a vision impairment, as well as their ability to attend an in-person interview or an in-person office environment. This is likely to pose a particular challenge to young people who will be adjusting to independence and navigating new routes after leaving school.
1.20. Recommendation: Public transport must provide consistent and sufficient accessibility options for vision impaired people, and ensure staff are fully trained and knowledgeable about how to support individuals on their journey, including ensuring staff are available to support vision impaired people directly at stations.
2.1. Often, schools may be able to address the specific support requirements of a child or young person with a vision impairment through reasonable adjustments alone, without the need for an Education, Health, and Care plan (EHCP). Of the 13,596 pupils whose primary SEN was VI in 2022, only 27.3% had an EHCP[12].
2.2. We therefore strongly agree with the inquiry’s decision not to focus solely on the experiences of young people with an EHCP, as this would exclude those with a vision impairment who do not have an EHCP – despite their transition from education to employment being a crucial phase.
3.2. Careers advice, guidance and support often does not meet the needs and career aspirations of children with vision impairment. Careers support is not person-centred, and advisors may have little to no knowledge and understanding of vision impairment:
3.3. “The next stage of Eoin’s education will be tricky to navigate, post-16 education for kids with vision impairment. It's certainly our focus right now, where we go from here and how best to support him. Careers advice for anyone with disabilities is really limited and not always well directed” – Bronagh, parent
3.4. There are some specialist organisations providing careers advice for young people with a vision impairment, but this can be a postcode lottery of what services are available in the local area. Young people with a vision impairment may be limited on which employment opportunities they are able to access. A pan-disability approach to careers advice is unlikely to adequately reflect the specific adjustments needed for someone with a vision impairment.
3.5. Thomas Pocklington Trust’s longitudinal study[13] into the post-school experiences of young people with vision impairment found that only a third of the participants had engaged with the university careers service prior to graduation, with several identifying the pressures of maintaining their studying workload as a barrier. Furthermore, only one participant recalled receiving disability-specific guidance for employment, which suggests that students with vision impairment are often not receiving tailored guidance to prepare them for navigating the labour market as a graduate with a disability.
3.6. Recommendation: Schools and other career support bodies need to ensure their guidance and approach can be tailored towards the specific needs of a young person with vision impairment, rather than providing a pan-disability approach, including when exploring work-experience opportunities, to ensure young people with a vision impairment have the tools and assistance to support their aspirations.
4.1. We know from both staff who utilise the scheme and people we support that the Access to Work scheme can be a fantastic resource for young people with vision impairment to enter and stay in the workforce.
4.2. However, Thomas Pocklington Trust found a disconnect between young people with vision impairment and Access to Work. They found that the majority of young people who went into higher education (HE) drew upon the similar Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) scheme, but then preferred to either make their own adjustments or rely on support from their employers[14].
4.3. Their research found, in 2019 less than a quarter of those participants who were in employment were drawing upon Access to Work. Whilst those who drew upon Access to Work recognised its value, a number of challenges were identified, including: the length of time for applications to be processed, inaccessible processes, and a rigidness of the scheme which seemed to be designed to cater for a particular type of job role.
4.4. RNIB have also found the length of time for applications to be processed is a major barrier. Their research found that on average, it takes five to six months from an initial application to assessment and determination of an application. Concerningly, these delays appear to be getting worse, with 25,103 outstanding applications in December 2022, up from 15,000 outstanding applications 12 months before[15].
4.5. For many young people with a vision impairment, these lengthy delays severely compromise their ability to secure or maintain employment. With five to six month delays for Access to Work now commonplace, job offers are routinely being withdrawn from people with vision impairment who rely on the scheme, but cannot access the support they need for their job. These delays are also having a negative impact on employers. By tackling the delays, employers could also be better supported to employ young disabled people.
4.6. Recommendation: We would like to see action taken to significantly reduce the time taken for Access to Work applications to be processed, to ensure this doesn’t present an additional barrier to young people with a vision impairment from entering the workforce, and supports their transition.
5. There are multiple barriers young people with a vision impairment face when leaving education and entering the workforce. These can range from poor employer attitudes, un-targeted, non-person-centred or non-disability-specific careers advice, and delays in Access to Work. Children and young people with a vision impairment are also disproportionately affected and disadvantaged when entering work, compared to other disabilities and sighted pupils. To tackle this, much more needs to be done to improve the support offering that employers provide, as well as to reduce the long delays people with a vison impairment face in accessing employment support schemes.
5.1. However, a significant barrier to a young person’s success in securing work is due to the lack and regional inconsistency of specialist habilitation support throughout childhood, provided by Qualified Habilitation Specialists. This is leaving some children and young people unprepared for the transition out of an education environment, and puts them at a disadvantage navigating the physical and social demands and expectations of the working environment.
5.2. Improving vision impaired young people’s experience of transitioning from education to employment will be instrumental in maximising their long-term life chances. However, better and more consistent support and habilitation at a young age is also vital if we are to ensure that young people with a vision impairment have the information, life skills and independence needed to successfully enter the workplace.
September 2023
[1] RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool - statistics on sight loss | RNIB | RNIB
[2] Key Stage 4 performance (2022)
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/key-stage-4-performance-2022
[3] Gov.uk (2023) Employment of disabled people 2022
[4], RNIB (2021) Employment facts and stats 2020
[5] Gov.uk (2023) Employment of disabled people 2022
[6] Curriculum Framework for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (rnib.org.uk)
[7] Guide Dogs (2021) Children and young people with vision impairment: The case for transforming support and services in England
[8] Guide Dogs and TPT (2020) Making childhood equal
[9] University of Central Lancashire, 2017: 15893_thetford.pdf (uclan.ac.uk)
[10]Guide Dogs and TPT (2020) Making childhood equal
[11] Guide Dogs, Challenges in the Built Environment for Vision Impaired People, 2021
[12] DfE official data – Children and young people with VI - England
[13] TPT and VICTAR (2021) Lost in Transition? The post-school experiences of young people with vision impairment
[14] Ibid
[15] RNIB (2022) Access to Work: People with sight loss cannot wait any longer for action