Employment support services : the Voir Ensemble Experience
by Mr. Dominique WIART, Director of REMORA
Role of the SAEDV - the Department in Support of Employment for the Visually Impaired, a department of the "Crusade for the Blind" (
now "Voir Ensemble") in the services for professional integration
1. Background history and presentation
The first SAEDV was created in a high-speed train during the return from the Conference of the FISAF in Besançon, by the Director of the Montéclair Institute and the Director of the Villeneuve Sainte Odile Institute, Loïc Haffray.
This department, administered by the Crusade for the Blind of the regions of Brittany, Lower and Upper Normandy, first saw the light of day in 1996.
In the North - Pas de Calais region, the Department in Support of Employment (SAE), reserved for users of working age, was set up in June 1998 based on funding from AGEFIPH, as an extension of a Department for mentoring in Social Life (SAVS) created in September 1997 in the administrative département of Northern France.
The service consists of two agencies, which interact to assure an " umbrella " approach to the situation of the individual user.
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2. Role of Rémora (SAE)
Rémora operates exclusively in the normal work environment and at the request of a professional integration agent, on the following principles:
1. Transfer of skills (mentoring by agents during a user's path towards integration),
2. Accompaniment of the operators (ad hoc technical support, mentoring in the strict meaning of the word to help the user find a job remains the province of the partner who called on the department's services).
Rémora therefore occupies a transversal position in the network for the integration of handicapped people generally, and proposes specific services to agents working to encourage the handicapped in the North - Pas de Calais region to access and stay in employment.
For the visually impaired in particular (Rémora also operates in the field of hearing handicaps) these services include:
1. Adaptation of the tools (evaluation, assessment, training),
2. Analysis of the situation,
3. Study of the need for technical aids,
4. Special arrangements for the workstation,
5. Promoting awareness of visual impairment.
A few figures for 2001
- 955 requests for help (65 % from the Cap Emploi network) from the visually and/or hearing impaired,
- 149 visually impaired persons received mentoring services,
- 151 professional integration agents were given training in special needs,
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3. Case study
To illustrate the role and missions of the department for assistance with employment, here is an example of the kind of help given. Although the situation described is a fictive case developed to aid an understanding of the services we offer, it is nevertheless ideal in reflecting the kind of work done by the support team on a routine basis.
Mr. X, is visually impaired, suffering from pigmentary retinitis (a progressive pathology). He is 30 years old and looking for a job: he mentions his situation while visiting an association to purchase a speaking clock. The volunteer there gives him the address and phone number of Rémora, with whom he arranges a meeting (initial contact).
He is received by the locomotion instructor, a lady, because of the various constraints on the time of the other members of the department. She informs him briefly about the department and the assistance they can provide to help him in his efforts, indicating the names of the professional integration operatives who will be able to assist him during the course of his chosen career, reminding him that the Department can step in whenever needed at any time along the way, at the agent's request.
Mr. X therefore contacts the Cap Emploi agency closest to his place of residence. The professional advisor working the reception calls Rémora and asks them to take part in the first meeting (Joint Reception, attended by the psychologist from Rémora).
During the meeting, they explain to Mr. X that his chosen professional aim, to become a telephone switchboard operator, does not fit the current reality of the job market since telephone operator positions are becoming more and more scarce. Also, although Mr. X has the necessary qualifications, he appears not to be particularly motivated by this choice of job, which he had learned in a Specialized Education Center. The meeting leaves Mr. X with many questions, as he does not qualify for assistance under the Law of July 1987 because he had not taken the necessary steps to do so.
In agreement with the professional advisor from Cap Emploi, the department's psychologist sends Mr. X to Rémora's Department for Accompaniment in Social Life, the SAVS, which offers help in the area of administrative procedures, locomotion and the normal activities of daily life.
Mr. X. needs time to think. He is a little disconcerted as his pathology has deteriorated since leaving school, thereby considerably impacting the reliability of his functional abilities (Mr. X. is having huge difficulties getting from A to B, and has no access to written information, etc.). He asks Rémora for a meeting.
The Psychologist suggests to him that he follow a course of functional rehabilitation in a specialist Center. After a period of initial hesitation and more thinking, Mr. X finally decides to attend the rehab center for 4 months.
Upon his return, he requests a further meeting with Cap Emploi who again calls in Rémora (In-depth meeting, once again with the Rémora psychologist).
At the end of the meeting, the professional advisor from Cap Emploi proposes that Mr. X undertake an evaluation of his skills, which he finds acceptable.
M. X. contacts the evaluation center and meets the assessment counselor, a psychologist, who is in charge of his case.
The assessment counselor calls Rémora to organize an evaluation of Mr. X's reading skills and adapt the tests (Preliminary Phase - Assessment, intervention of the psychologist and document adapter) in order to avoid, or at least limit and assess to what extent his visual impairment affects the results of the different tests and the assessment interviews.
The evaluation concludes by working out how to adapt the tests: Mr. X. takes the skills assessment, the main lines of which guide him preferably into a profession that involves social action. After some thought, Mr. X. turns his career choice to that of specialist educator.
With a professional diploma as a receptionist - telephone operator, Mr. X needs the equivalent of a high school diploma to qualify for higher education. The conclusions of the skills assessment also indicate that some remedial teaching might be useful, that could be obtained in a community college type training center.
Mr. X once again takes a series of tests in the training center, which proposes individual remedial training for him, tailored to his objectives. The training center calls on Rémora to adapt those tests (Preliminary Phase - Assessment, intervention by the document adapter). Mr. X is positioned into a particular level group, however human adaptation of the teaching aids appears difficult to implement in view of the large volume of documents to be transcribed.
M. X. then considers asking AGEFIPH to fund a suitable computer hardware configuration.
He contacts Cap Emploi which calls on Rémora to assess his needs in terms of technical aids (Ad-hoc technical help, assistance of the ergonomist and of the advisor on technical aids): the Department performs a study, costs the needs and sends its conclusions to Mr. X and to Cap Emploi, which fills in the application for funding for technical aids (Ad-hoc technical support - intervention of the family economics and social counselor in seeking out additional function, as the contribution of AGEFIPH along is insufficient to amortize the full cost of the capital outlay).
Mr. X obtains funds to purchase the equipment from AGEFIPH and now has a means of access to written information. However, he is still not comfortable getting about inside the training center and has difficulty in applying what he has learned during the period of rehabilitation to the new location.
The training center therefore asks Rémora to check out the premises and develop compensatory strategies for Mr. X in the specific context (Ad-hoc technical support, assistance of the locomotion instructor).
Mr. X follows his remedial course, then his training and after two years obtains the Diploma for Access to University Studies. He then undertakes training to become a specialist educator. A meeting is called with the school's teaching team to verify that the technical aids Mr. X has at his disposal will enable him to follow his studies in suitable conditions and that he is sufficiently independent, particularly at getting around, to complete the practical training portions that are stipulated for the training without any other help than the means that the school is ready to put in place (some additional teaching help, enlarged photocopies).
Rémora loses all trace of Mr. X for 3 years because everything is going well...
After graduation, Mr. X is once again in the market for a job.
He is looking for some kind of social work establishment in which he can exercise his new profession. He finds a potential employers who however expresses some doubts as a result of Mr. X's visual impairment: contacted by Mr. X, Cap Emploi calls on Rémora to talk to the employer to explain what the visual impairment entails. Whereupon Mr. X is appointed, however the computer equipment he has been using is not obsolete and incompatible with the tasks he envisions performing. The company physician phones Rémora and asks them to come in and look at the arrangements for Mr. X's workstation (Ad-hoc technical aid, assistance of the ergonomist, of the "AVJ"ist, the technical aids counselor).
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