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Tech community must play a part in closing the employment gap for blind and sight-impaired people
Tech and digital leaders have a vital role to play in making technology more usable and inclusive for sight-impaired people - boosting their employment and supporting the economy
There is a pernicious problem in the UK labour market. A horrific gap that blights lives, scars our economy and holds our nation back and yet, despite its scale, it seldom gets a mention in any media.
It’s quite simply this - the employment gap for blind and sight-impaired people compared to their non-disabled counterparts. If, like me, you are blind or sight-impaired and of working age in the UK you will only have a 27% chance of being in employment. That compares to 83% if you are non-disabled - more than just “mind the gap”.
According to analysis from the latest Labour Force Survey, since 2018 the employment rate has been falling for people who describe themselves as “having difficulty seeing”, despite increasing for the broader population. What this means in reality is lost income, lost independence, and lost opportunity for thousands who are fully capable and up for contributing to our economy and society.
It’s not only a huge gap, of more than 56%. It is also a situation that has dogged our economy and our society for decades, largely without improvement.
Systemic difficulties
And yet, we live in a time where we have some of the most powerful tools to address so many of the underlying causes and issues.
Sure, there are systemic difficulties. Certainly, there are barriers and blockers that kick in well before any of us get close to the labour market. But, right now, technologies and technologists hold so much potential for being one of the most powerful forces in addressing and assisting in closing this gap.
All that is required is for relevant technologies to be inclusive by design - developed, deployed, maintained and supported in an enabling environment. Screen readers and organisations’ intranets, for example, need to be usable as well as accessible; employers’ software and IT systems interoperable and inclusive - to name just a few from the myriad of empowering possibilities.
Consider though, the flip side of that coin, if the technologies are not inclusive by design, or indeed become so. One jobseeker stressed to me the challenges they faced when technology becomes a block rather than the enabler it can and should be: “Online applications or automated [AI] systems are not screen-reader friendly and that’s a barrier before I can even reach an interview. It makes me feel so frustrated”.
Another example - someone fully enabled and empowered, just getting on with their job on a Friday. They return on Monday, unbeknown to them a software upgrade over the weekend has rendered their assistive technology as good as useless. From fully empowered to completely excluded in one ill-considered upgrade. This is avoidable. And not just avoidable - here’s the great news - the cost of inclusion is often negligible, if anything at all, when considered from the outset. It’s about being inclusive by design.
Urgent action
Considering this transformational technological potential, in Parliament I am calling on the UK government to take urgent action across the piece to get this gap sorted. I am urging them to establish a task force to, among other things, bring together employers, organisations of and for blind and sight-impaired people, specialists, civil servants, and individuals with lived experience, to identify the most significant systemic barriers; develop practical, scalable solutions; improve data collection and analysis; improve access to peer mentor support; consider the role, availability and effectiveness of current disability employment advisor provision; improve employer confidence and recruitment practices; and deliver measurable progress with a timeline set to close the employment gap.
To conclude, if you can help - thank you. Please do. Hundreds of thousands of blind and sight-impaired people could be enabled, empowered to enter the workplace, develop and thrive - good for them, good for our economy, good for our country. Not a bad Christmas message and not a bad mission for 2026.
Read more about accessible technologies
- Embedding better accessibility in software and websites - We speak to a CIO who relies on a screen reader to do his job and find out how accessibility technology has evolved.
- Smart headset gives visually impaired a new way to ‘see’ - Researchers at the National University of Singapore have created a wearable device that combines a camera with conversational AI powered by Meta’s Llama models to give sight to the visually impaired.
- How digital twins are helping people with motor neurone disease speak - Tech companies, a charity and academics have collaborated to create AI-powered avatars that are helping people with motor neurone disease hold natural conversations.
