Diversity and Disability: Exploring the Experiences of Vision Impaired People in the Workplace

Abstract

Over the past decade managing diversity has emerged as a popular topic for analysis. However, much of the discussion concerning diversity has tended to focus on gender and race. Only limited attention has been centred on disabled people as a minority group in the workplace. One of the biggest challenges faced by disabled people is in obtaining and maintaining employment, particularly for those individuals with a vision impairment. The purpose of this research is to explore some of the issues faced by vision impaired people in the workplace in Australia. It outlines how, with certain accommodations to the workplace, vision impaired employees can be just as capable and efficient as their sighted counterparts. The major barrier still faced by disabled workers is overcoming the negative attitudes and misconceptions of colleagues and employers.