by Philippe CHAZAL
Chair, EBU Commission on Rehabilitation, Vocational Training and
Employment
There are no figures or surveys about the number of blind people in France, let alone about their age distribution or whether or not they have a job. According to an estimate of January 2001, totally blind people may be about 60 000 (of which 15 000 have learned braille, 7 000 practising it on a regular basis). There are 15 000 blind people of working age (including 3 000 braille readers), barely more than 6 000 may have a real job. The primary factors that explain such a high unemployment rate within this population, include : the lack of information of employers who are generally reluctant to hire visually impaired people ; the counter-productive impact of the financial benefits granted to the visually impaired to compensate for their disability - the higher the person's income, the smaller the amount served - and of tax exemptions granted only to those who are totally income-deprived.The 1987 Act aims to help people with disabilities gain employment, but it does not provide any specific measures for the blind : no reserved careers as is the case in Italy, or retirement-related bonuses like in many other European countries. A fund fed by contributions from companies that do not meet the required 6 % quota of disabled people's employment helps cover the cost of adaptations to work stations in the private sector. However, the funding of such adaptations in the public sector, which is also subjected to the same employment requirement, still poses problems.
Currently the main occupations open to blind people include : reception and communication, administration, arts, sales-marketing, education, law, medical-paramedical, audio-visual press, computer science/research. A book published in 1999 called "Les Aveugles au Travail" (" The Blind at Work ") mentions some 75 occupations accessible to blind people, including some rather unusual ones in the areas of agriculture, craft, politics, and social welfare.
19 sheltered work institutions accommodate some 700 sight-impaired people, including only 200 totally blind people working in the areas of craft, office supplies or agriculture. A large number of support work centres and of sheltered workshops produce their own products in highly varied areas. Support work centres employ disabled people whose production skills are low and who need medical and social support. Workers in sheltered workshops, whose productivity level is much higher, have full worker status and are more likely to join a normal work environment. While support work centres receive an overall operating budget that compensates for the low productivity of workers, sheltered workshops need to achieve a financial balance and only receive meagre operating grants. Lastly, it is noteworthy that in addition to their wages, all employees in the sheltered sector get a " compensation supplement " paid by the Government ensuring them " guaranteed resources ", which, given its low amount, can usually be paid concurrently with a fraction of the general allowance paid to disabled people. Any company giving work to the sheltered sector is partially exempted from the 6 % job quota requirement.
Back to contents