This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: I have been fortunate in my research to follow 80 young people with vision impairment over 11 years. I tracked their journeys from school into adulthood, speaking with them at regular intervals to learn what had happened since we last spoke, what had gone well and what could have been improved.
The aim was to observe the different pathways they followed and their experiences along the way. Despite doing relatively well academically compared with other SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) groups, young people with vision impairment have persistently low employment rates and are particularly vulnerable to becoming economically inactive. My colleagues and I wanted to understand why and identify possible solutions.
When I first started working with the young people, they were 14 to 16 and full of optimism for the future. They wanted to become social workers, teachers and psychologists. Yet by the end of the study, when they were 25 to 27, many had never held a paid job and could not see a path to employment.
Through their accounts, we learned of a range of barriers they faced, many specific to their vision impairment. Because support varied depending on where they lived, we found that many felt unprepared for adulthood and for navigating their lives as young adults with vision impairment. Some could not use assistive technology in a work setting or lacked the skills to travel independently.
Sometimes they simply lacked the confidence to disclose their disability and request adjustments. As "Brett" described: "To be honest, most of my colleagues don't know I am visually impaired. I hate saying about it and think about it as a crutch if people know, and I don't want a crutch." The young people described an inaccessible job market, with application systems and assessment processes that were highly visual and incompatible with their assistive technology.
They reported a general lack of knowledge among HR teams and managers about how to make the reasonable adjustments required under the Equality Act. "David" estimated that he encountered accessibility challenges with a third of the 50 graduate programs he applied for. "But that's the most prohibiting factor about the recruitment process, is the online tests.
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