Synthesis

by Philippe CHAZAL
Director of the Centre for Training and Professional
Rehabilitation of the Valentin Haüy Association






Introduction

If we consider all individuals affected by a physical, sensorial or mental handicap, the blind and poor-sighted are among those whose impairment still in most cases enables them to exercise a professional activity. Indeed, sightlessness or poor sight generally does not generate any incapacity other than the inability to fully use the sense of vision, which of course is very often a requirement in this, the century of the image. Other than that, their intellectual and physical capabilities, their manual dexterity and behaviour are totally normal, as varied and diverse as the abilities of those blessed with good eyesight. The visually impaired do not, as we all too frequently hear, constitute a "world unto themselves". They ask merely that people recognise their difference and allow them as broad access as possible to their full rights as citizens.

Certainly the number of jobs available to us is much more limited than for the average person and despite vast advances in technology it remains somewhat difficult for us to find new professional outlets; certainly, we may need special arrangements or technical aids, which in the majority of cases are funded by outside sources and therefore do not impact the employer's budget; certainly, legislative stipulations do not always provide sufficient incentive for handicapped people to take a job, or for companies, public establishments or government departments to employ them, so that the number of unemployed among our ranks is far higher than the national average. However, the main obstacle to appointing a blind person and therefore their social integration resides elsewhere. As an illustration, let me read you two sentences from an article published in issue n°403 of the Association's review "Voir Ensemble" (literally, Let's see together), written by Yves Dolange, the Study Director of the Besançon centre for the visually impaired :
"It is difficult for the average person to take an objective, remote and respectful view of visually impaired individuals. Between the different registers: pity, feeling sorry for, or commiserating with their lot (which usually either irritates or amuses our blind or poor-sighted friends) and some forms of exaggerated admiration, it is difficult for people to find the right tone, the appropriate attitude, the correct measure. And while people continue to look only at the surface of things, we are unlikely ever to overcome this barrier. "

In the same review, an employer testifies: " during my first meeting with the handicapped applicant, I was ill-at-ease, uncomfortable, I really didn't know how to act; you have to help others look again at how they behave and alter their usual codes of communication. An impairment or visible incapacity masks the usual signals that convey information to the interlocutor about an individual, so that he therefore perceives us too impersonally, as a handicapped person first and foremost. The only traits that he will perceive, in the early stages at least, are the characteristics relating to the impairment ".

In the face of two sincere and, alas, very realistic statements, one of the most difficult tasks for us, the associations, is indeed to open the doors of companies to visually impaired jobseekers. Though generally speaking no one expresses any hostility towards them, they nevertheless often incur indifference, ignorance, misunderstanding, words that indeed apply to other ethnic, social or cultural minorities. Employers have to manage the company's material, human and financial resources in the best way possible (economically speaking); they have to beat the competition, research and develop new products, a whole host of "missions impossible" that capture their attention far more than whether to take on an employee with reduced capacities. Even the social partners, whose very desire is to defend the interests of the employees, rarely appoint new handicapped workers, who are their first priority.

All means however must be brought to bear to tear down the barriers, inform, arouse the awareness of decision-makers who, if they appoint a visually impaired person to a workstation will rarely regret having done so. Among those means, let me mention five that I personally used recently and which, I hope at least, contributed to achieving these results:




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I. Partnership Agreements with Companies

Often, after conducting the sorts of campaigns that we will tell you about in a moment, the outcome is that we sign partnership agreements with the companies. The one signed publicly today between the Centre for Training and Professional Rehabilitation of the Valentin HAÜY Association and L'OREAL company is a good example of the mutual determination to develop the quality of the training, employability and professional integration of the visually handicapped. I am delighted to have this opportunity to allow the directors of this company to relate the background to this event, the current objectives and the prospects for our future collaboration. The agreement (appended to this report) will be a first, and is a significant tangible consequence of our international conference. I hope that it will serve as a model to others, for in this area we must capitalise on as many experiences as possible.




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II. The Publication of Documents or Information Brochures

In several countries such as France, Poland or Slovenia, books have been published providing the public with as complete information as possible on the professional capabilities of the visually impaired. The documents set forth the professions accessible to this group of people, sometimes with supporting photographs. They may also contain more general articles on Braille, on the technical aids that are useful in adapting the workstations, on functional rehabilitation or protected work. In our country, the book entitled " the Blind at Work " published in 1999 sold some 5,000 copies. It was available in ordinary print and able to be broadly distributed through local libraries because it was published by an editor of repute. The Valentin HAÜY Association, for its part, took responsibility for printing Braille copies, cassettes, audio CDs and also an electronic format. Several broadcasts on national radio and TV, even, some press articles and a few presentations organised in the larger provincial cities, marked the launch of the book. It is difficult to appraise the precise impact of such a publication, but we like to think that it was not insignificant.




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III. The Production of Films and Audiovisual Documents

Yesterday on videocassettes, tomorrow in DVD format: audiovisual documents are excellent media for communicating in a clear and contemporary fashion to present the activities of an association, of a placement organisation or demonstrate the professional skills or the approach of specialist training courses. In France, since the beginning of this year, three reportages have been produced along these lines in different contexts, yet always with the same objective of informing about employment:

The first, in February, was filmed in the Lyons and Bordeaux Centres for the Assistance of the Visually Impaired through Work. The film shows work in progress in the different workshops, and daily life; it was produced for the programme "à vous de voir" ("the way you see it") broadcast once a month by a national television channel;

The second, funded by the Union of Masseurs and Physiotherapists and the GUINOT Association, presents in detail the therapy dispensed by two blind rehabilitation specialists in a hospital department. The specific methods that they use in caring for the patients, the adaptation of their workstations, the opinion of their line managers, are presented through images with appropriate "voice-off" commentaries. This film will indeed be broadcast shortly in audiovision so as to be more accessible for the visually impaired, particularly those of them who might like to exercise that same profession.

The last and most recent, since it has been " out " for only a few days, focuses on our Professional Training Centre. The conditions of its production are unusual and worthy of mention: it was produced by students reaching the end of their training, part of the Visual Technician Higher Diploma course they were preparing, in order to validate their skills. Independently of the fact that it therefore cost us not a penny to produce, this film in the form of a television broadcast, was prepared with utmost care, supervised by examiners, and appears to be very successful. Over the coming years, therefore, it will be an aid that we can use in our communication.




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IV. Presentation of Photographic Exhibitions

It was a professional photographer, Nicolas DEMOLI-CRIVELLI, who last February proposed that we prepare an exhibition on the visually impaired at work. The result, presented in the framework of this conference, is a set of some thirty photographs, which we hope will capture the public's attention. A compromise was found between our will to inform and the artistic side that is necessarily present in this kind of an exhibition and, indeed, that is what makes it so original. Easily transportable, we hope that the medium will travel not only throughout France but abroad, too. It is available to all those who would like to use it.




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V. Organisation of Morning Debates

As we said earlier, company directors or personnel managers are often extremely busy and it can prove difficult to capture their attention to discuss with them the employment of the visually impaired. This, however, is what we did on February 4th this year, using the " pretext " of the European Year of the Handicapped. This very successful event was attended by more than eighty companies, government departments or public establishments. The entire morning, from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. was tightly filled with presentations of numerous short testimonies (no more than five minutes each) by visually impaired professionals in jobs, and by employers. A brief demonstration of the usefulness of office automation technology, excerpts from a film highlighting the different pathologies affecting the visually impaired, and lastly two scenarios acted out by a theatre company and prepared on our instructions to show in comical yet realistic fashion the kind of prejudice the blind come up against when looking for a job. The short role-plays can also just as well be acted out at the beginning of the more theoretical debates, discussions or talks. They relax the atmosphere and barely exaggerate reality!




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Conclusion

To conclude, let me say only that although we must use all means possible to open the doors of companies to the visually impaired, the result is never achieved definitively, so we must never rest on our laurels. I particularly wish to pay homage to our integration specialist, Mrs. Thérèse BASMADJIEV who on a daily basis expends a vast amount of energy leading our trainees towards employment along a career path beset with pitfalls : definition of the professional project, the search to find practical internships, mentoring during those internships, job interview simulations, help preparing resumes and accompanying letters, constantly providing information for companies, and lastly bringing together jobseekers, specialist placement organisations and future employers. Without her, without the quality work performed by our trainers and without our trainees' efforts to overcome their handicap and do without the need for assistance, we could not achieve our prime objective : Employment.

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