by Gordon Dryden, Royal National Institute for the Blind
presented at the seminar on "Older visually impaired people and access to the labour market"
(Erice, Italy, 9 May 1999)
As European economies face structural change, they still continue slowly to provide a better standard of living to the citizens of Europe. Unfortunately, the circumstances that visually impaired older people find themselves in are difficult : they are largely excluded from the labour market and therefore deprived of the economic power to gain access to the advantages enjoyed by younger generations. The benefits of economic advancement are not distributed equally across society. This paper will seek to provide an outline of the situation of older visually impaired people in the UK labour market.
Because data referring specifically to visually impaired older people in the labour market ės not collected on a large scale, this paper will rely to some extent on rather indirect indicators, but it provides what I think is an accurate picture.
The main source of labour market information within the UK is the Labour Force Survey that collects data on the participation of disabled people in the labour market twice yearly. This provides the most reliable and consistent source of information, but two points need to be kept in mind.
Firstly, the definition of visual impairment within the Labour Force Survey is broader than RNIB would normally use, the LFS population being self-selected as having some sight dífficulties in work.
Secondly, breaking down a large national sample by type of disability and then by age group gives very small numbers which are not statistically reliable. This paper, therefore, looks at trends by disability and by age group, but does not seek to quantify the combined impact of these factors.
The non-disabled population of working age, of just over 30 million people, are predominantly active in the economy. 85,4 % of the non-disabled population of working age is economically active. In contrast just 52 % of the visually impaired population of working age are economically active and, across the whole range of disabled people, 40,9 % are economically active.
It is worth noting that within the UK only 15 % of those with mental health problem and 28 % of those with severe learning difficulties are active within the labour market. Visual impairment has less impact in preventing access to employment than most disabilities, although people with hearing loss do have an activity rate of 64 %.
The age-relatedness of visual impairment is widely recognised. At RNIB, we are conscious of the very rapid increase of visual impairment with age. This is indicated by the available statistics on registration throughout the country.
The Labour Force Survey has also identified the increase of disability with age. The incidence of a work-limiting disability or health condition is nearly 4 times higher between the age of 55 and 60 than it is between the age of 20 and 29 years old.
The UK, like the rest of Europe, has felt the impact of economic globalisation, with a consequent loss in primary extraction industries and in manufacturing. This has had a particularly important impact on those visually impaired people who relied on supported employment, either in sheltered workshops or on supported placement in the open labour market. A very small proportion of visually impaired people of working age are involved in this intermediate labour market.
This contrasts with the situation just 15 or 20 years ago. In the early 1980's there were over 6,000 blind and partially sighted people in sheltered workshops. But these workshops have closed as their productive base became increasingly untenable within a changing market.
The loss in manufacturing has to some extent been compensated for by a growth of the service sector but, even within the service sector, visually impaired people have faced major reductions in some areas of job opportunity.
Some 20 years ago, the National Federation of the Blind carried out a survey of some 10,000 blind and partially sighted people who were in employment. They found that 60 % were either telephonists or working in an office where the principal task was typing. These jobs have gone. Both telephony and basic typing have been replaced by jobs using more sophisticated information and communication technology. These changes place a premium on flexibility and a high level of skill by anyone seeking employment. The premium on skill is particularly important for any visually impaired person seeking employment.
Despite these changes in the labour market, participation rates by visually impaired people have increased marginally. This gives some scope for celebration, but that apparent stability ės hiding a number of underlying trends.
Qualifications are extremely important in obtaining work, and those people who are losing employment at the moment are those who are unqualified and insufficiently skilled to meet the demands of the market place.
A recent survey by RNIB, What Next ?, dealing with issues of transition from education into employment, shows a very clear correlation between level of qualification and employment prospects.
RNIB's Adult Needs Survey (1991) showed clearly that older people tend to be less well qualified.
The apparent stability in levels of employment disguise the improvement in opportunities for younger well qualified visually impaired people, but the worsening situation of older poorly qualified people who leave the workforce with little prospect of returning into the labour market.
We should take some comfort from the fact that, despite the loss of jobs in telephony and the closure of sheltered workshops, we still have approximately the same proportion of people in employment and in a more diverse range of employment. Nevertheless, we do need to address the issue of finding alternative employment for older poorly qualified people to re-enter the labour market.
One option that seems to offer some promise in this area is self-employment. Self-employment within the UK is increasingly popular for older workers, and our own Self-Employment Development Unit at RNIB has uncovered the potential for development in this area.
This leaves RNIB with a number of policy priorities that are relevant to older visually impaired people.
We recognise that it is futile to try to protect jobs by resisting change. Telephony, typing and manufacturing have all diminished in the face of technical advance and globalisation of markets.
New technology has to be evaluated and we need to adapt quickly to make it accessible to visually impaired people so that they can exploit its benefits.
We need to establish legally enforceable job retention policies to provide the opportunity for older workers to re-skill and so remain in the labour market. Where an individual's condition makes it ėmpossible to remain in full time work, we need more flexible options within an intermediate labour market. The increased flexibility needs to be supported by training, funding and on-going business advice and support.
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