Feature
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Out from under the shelter - blind people working
Rob de Cent has been working since he left Manurewa High School at age 17 and went home to Gisborne. In the 30 years since then he's done everything from being a mechanical labourer, hospital orderly, running a disco, and vehicle repair to owning a lifestyle block. He has worked as an office manager, commercial cleaner, caregiver, taxi dispatcher and art gallery attendant. As the father of three children, and with 70 per cent sight loss, he was the main breadwinner for a number of years. Jobs, Rob says, are letting harder to come by. "It's not so easy to get work now because employers hide behind safety issues, with OSH, and there's more competition for fewer jobs."
Over the years, because of his vision impairment Rob has had to face prejudice from employers, lower wages and redundancy. A phone survey on employment carried out by the Foundation in 2002 shows that Rob is not alone. Eighty per cent of members said that finding a job was difficult because of the attitudes and misconceptions of employers. A further survey of employers last year revealed that people with disabilities other than blindness were employed by twice as many companies than blind people. Other negative perceptions were that blind people needed a full-time minder and were therefore more expensive to employ; that health and safety issues were, as Rob says, a barrier; and that a job couldn't be done without a driver's licence or the ability to read a computer screen.
But barriers can be overcome. Pam Harvey left her private sector job 15 years ago because of her employer's negative attitude to her failing eyesight. She found another job as a project officer with the Ministry for the Environment in Wellington, responsible for the financial management of over $6 million of project funding, and has been there ever since. She moved from the Mainstream Scheme into a permanent salaried position in just over a year, competing against sighted outsiders for the job. "They've been very good," Pam says. "I have a supportive CEO and they've paid for the software and reading equipment I need, which
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they replace as technology requires. I knew nothing about the equipment that existed for partially sighted people until I began to need it."
The Foundation is committed to helping members find jobs such as Pam's, which suit their skills and abilities and pay appropriately. In July this year the RNZFB launched its new job placement service. Vocational placement coordinators' roles have been expanded to help find jobs for members. Three new staff have also been recruited to raise private sector employer awareness about the range of jobs that blind and vision impaired people can do. Team Leader of the Employment Awareness Trainers, Thomas Bryan, says the benefit of the Foundation taking on this role is its expertise in blindness issues.
"It's like going to see the doctor and they refer you onto a specialist. Workbridge (as the doctor) may only deal with four or five blind people a year. As the specialist, we deal with the particular needs of blind and vision-impaired people every day. We couldn't provide that level of training to Workbridge because of their staff turnover, and they wouldn't be able to put the training into practice often enough for it to be effective anyway."
A contract with the Ministry of Social Development calls for the Foundation to place 60 people into mainstream jobs by June next year, through educating employers, providing specialist equipment and training where needed, and by working with members to identify their career aspirations.
A common public attitude that blind people were not able to be educated or to work effectively alongside sighted colleagues prevailed right through to the early 1990s. A rare number of individuals had overcome those barriers. Cyril White trained as a piano tuner and repairer and set up his own business in the 1920s. Clive Lansink worked as a scientist for the DSIR division of the Government in the 70s and 80s. But they were exceptions. The expectation was still that most legally blind people would enter the sheltered workshops. Three factors then merged to produce a marked shift. The first was economic, with a radical restructuring of the country's welfare base during the 1980s. Government policy moved away
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from institutional care and towards integrating those in institutions back into the community. As a result of this and of inflation, in the early '90s the Foundation's hostels closed down and the sheltered workshops were wound up. Last to go were the magazine wrapping and wire products divisions. The workshops had been built in 1927 and the Institute of the Blind had offered sheltered workshop training since its inception in 1890. Children also began to be mainstreamed in schools and Homai became a state special school (in 2000), no longer run by the Foundation. Rob de Cent points to the segregated education system of the 1970s as the root cause of his later difficulties in settling into a career that could be adapted to his vision loss.
"Being away from home and friends I just wanted to get home when I was 15. I was already behind most of my classmates and felt frustrated that I couldn't mix and match the kinds of subjects I wanted to take to become an accountant," he says. The second factor in creating change was effective and sustained lobbying from the blind community and its advocates, which contributed to the New Zealand Disability Strategy in 2001. The strategy, designed to eliminate barriers to a more inclusive society, includes the objective to "Provide opportunities in employment and economic development for disabled people".
The third change was in technology. Computers and the internet were gradually seeping into general use, along with the means to adapt the technology and make the explosion of information more accessible. As some traditional jobs for blind people became redundant - such as switchboard operators - new areas opened up, including computer programming, graphic design and call centre work. Adaptive technology also helped to make tertiary education more accessible.
The challenges have been to make the specialist equipment affordable and to provide training in using it. Trusts such as the NZ Vodafone Foundation are getting involved. They are funding an adaptive communications technologist. In October, 23 members from around the country, aged 19 to 60, also attended a 'buddy' day in
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Auckland run by Vodafone.
Each member was paired up with a Vodafone buddy who had been briefed earlier in the week on what to expect and been given sighted guide training. Many of those who took part were nervous beforehand but the day was a huge success. "I'm pretty confident I could do the job," said one participant afterwards, "but the experience has also encouraged me to go do a post-graduate degree. There's more that I want to do. But it's really good just knowing that I could do the job. It gives me confidence."
One participant has already been invited to send in their CV, and as a Vodafone staff member commented afterwards, "I think we learnt as much, if not more, than your people did."
If you are interested in finding a job that meets your skills, abilities and interests, contact the placement service on 0800 24 33 33 or your local vocational placement coordinator.
Bridging the gap
The Foundation's new Placement Service exists solely to help members meet their vocational goals, either in employment or through tertiary education. It works like a mainstream recruitment agency, but with the additional benefit of our knowledge of blindness issues. So do contact us!
Vocational Placement Coordinators in the five main centres are now available to help you in any of the following circumstances:
- If you are looking for a job
- If you have a job but would like assistance to look at other career options
- If you have a job and need help to retain that job.
- If you wish to enrol in tertiary education
Employment Awareness Trainers will be out there in the community, educating employers and promoting the benefits of employing workers with vision impairment. They will also be encouraging employers to provide work experience and organizing these programmes with the vocational placement coordinators.
Over the next few months we will be contacting all members on our database who have advised us they are looking for work. A coordinator will spend time with you to identify possible employment or training options that head you in the direction of your career goals. We will then actively target employers who could offer potential jobs or work experience to match those goals.
Call toll free on 0800 24 33 33 during business hours to get in touch with the Placement Service.