by Larisa Tcherkessova
Member, EBU Commission on Rehabilitation, Vocational Training and Employment
Over the period 1996-1999 the All-Russia Association of the Blind (VOS), working in close contact with regional and territorial employment services, helped create new jobs for 15,510 visually disabled persons, including : 7,488 in VOS organisations and factories, 1,700 in state industry, 5,426 in non-state (private, individual, etc.) industry, and 894 in agriculture.
During the recent years, an increasing number of regions (the Altai, Khabarovsk region, the Republic of Komi, the Kemerov region, Moscow, etc.) have adopted the " quota system ", i.e. 2-5 % of workstations for the visually disabled.
Rehabilitation programmes for the disabled are available in 52 regions of Russia, but only in 38 regions are their recommendations implemented by local employment services.
There are 36,684 visually disabled people in employment, including :
- 23,577 in the VOS system
- 11,315 in state and other factories
- 1,792 in agriculture.
In 1999, for the first time in the last nine years, the total number of the visually disabled who have jobs has increased by 140. Those unemployed, but job ready, are 6,447.
The number of the visually disabled studying in secondary and higher special education institutions is 1,379, and is constantly growing (plus 331 since 1996).
Under the present market conditions, one of the new trends in vocational rehabilitation of the visually disabled is the creation of non-traditional workstations using computer technologies.
The successful experience of the Central Office of VOS in creating experimental workstations for the blind at the information department of Aeroflot (Russia's main airline) has helped persuade the Government of Moscow to fund similar workstations for the blind in other sectors.
The VOS Centre of Computer Technologies is responsible for the creation of automated workstations for the visually disabled working in the Organisation, using standard computer techniques, ordinary software and universal rehabilitation means.
Experience shows that computers enable a blind person to be employed virtually by any organisation, in particular those dealing with information processing.
Since 1996 41 special workstations have been installed in Moscow where 63 visually disabled persons are employed. These include a computer teacher, a programmer at a joint-stock company, a stenographer in the editorial staff of a popular newspaper, etc.
This year, the Centre of Computer Technologies has started to develop a new strand of activity : further education and employment of graduates from schools for blind and partially sighted children. Already 15 senior pupils from 3 Moscow schools have been taught to work on computers with a braille display and text magnification.
Many regions of Russia are showing interest in using the technology of the Centre with a view to setting up special automated workstations for the visually disabled. The cities of Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, the Republic of Khakassia, the Vologda region, are examining the possibility of creating regional computer centres and special workstations for the blind.
However for the moment it is not possible to transfer this unique experience to the regions due to lack of finance.
Besides the Centre of Computer Technologies, there are other centres - in Volokolamsk in the Moscow region, and Biisk in the Altai region - providing rehabilitation services, including orientation and mobility, vocational training and handicraft (e.g. bee-keeping, shoe-making and repairing, carving, book-binding, wicker-work, knitting, macramé, and the playing of musical instruments).
The visually disabled trained in these centres (170-180 per year) get an opportunity to earn their living with their labour and to feel full members of society.
Besides, 60 visually disabled persons are trained as masseurs each year at the medical school of Kislovodsk.
There is also a special musical boarding school in Kursk which trains 30 visually disabled people per year, in the following professions : singing, instrument playing, choir conducting.
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