project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“

LLP Grundtvig partnership project

Good Practice example based on experiences from the Czech Republic

Lucie Skříšovská, Centrum vizualizace a interaktivity vzdělávání, s.r.o.

This example of good practice is based on a story of a blind young man named Lukáš, who lost his sight ten years ago as a result of an accident. He is 37 today and fully independent and self-sufficient. He lives on his own and studies by distance at the University of Social sciences and Humanities. Until losing his vision, Lukáš used to work as a policeman. Because he enjoyed his job and didn't want to leave, his employer decided to meet him halfway and transferred Lukáš to a different department. At the moment he is working as a call assistant and as part of the job he uses a computer with a voice-controlled software. He took a retraining course, where he learned to use and type on a keyboard for a voice-controlled computer, followed by a complete training on how to use the computer itself. Lukáš loves his job and the fact that he can stay in touch with people by phone brings him a sense of fulfillment. He likes to cooperate with another people.

Lukáš didn't let the initial setbacks to discourage him and thanks to his sense for responsibility and being a single-minded person he learned new ways of working in the existing department. To be able to walk to work on his own, he also trained hard to memorize the route. Knowing already the environment of the workplace before the accident he sees as a big advantage. Lukáš is very popular among his colleagues mainly because of his cheerful personality and the amount of optimism. The colleagues don't think of Lukáš as a nuisance as he is actually very well accustomed to the workplace and manages all everyday activities without any assistance. Also thanks to the support of his family and colleagues he managed to adapt adequately and is able to work without any problems.

Lukáš's workplace: City Policy Department, Ostrava, 30. dubna 1682/24, 729 21, Moravská Ostrava, phone: 974 725 111, e-mail: mrpo.podatelna@pcr.cz

If a person of working age loses his vision, there might be a strong possibility of losing his job, too. A significant limitation of visual functions in a younger age may be related to the inability of being able to prepare for a potential career in the course of process of education. In terms of integrating the blind and partially sighted people into the labour market the situation seems to be really difficult. Even though visually impaired people use the wide range of different assistive devices they are not able to perform a huge number of different professions and this of course has a major impact on their chances to integrate into the working process.

The main goal of a social work with the blind and visually impaired people is to support a development of those skills that will direct these people to more autonomous lifestyle. Limited or non-existent visual function significantly complicates the ability to cope with daily activities.

Trainings in these areas appear to be the most relevant to people with a visual impairment:

- training in visual aids and providing them with information on how to obtain them - self-care practice - training in spatial orientation and independent movement (walking with a white cane,

learning to walk with a companion, selecting suitable routes) - handwritten signature training

project „Experiences of Adult Education in Europe for blind or visually impaired people“

LLP Grundtvig partnership project

- training in typing on a typewriter - vision re-education (visual training ) - training on how to behave in different social situations and how to approach people

Afterwards the blind and visually impaired people might take steps further in the terms of gaining new skills, work habits and the labour market integration.

In connection with a job placement we divide visually impaired people into groups based on a level of their impairment. The first group includes people with a mild vision loss and people with a binocular vision impairment. The second group includes people with a moderate and severe visual impairment. And the third group includes blind and partially blind people. The choice of studies and consequently the choice of profession depend on the actual individuals and on an objective assessment whether they will be able to perform at their jobs considering their health disadvantage. It's also necessary to take into account the use of special visual aids and a possible adjustment of a working environment. The visually impaired people often work at different positions. Generally it's possible to define these occupations as the ones that appear to visually impaired people as the most appropriate. Such as the profession of an upholsterer, brush maker, ceramicist, bookbinder, basket maker,professional in communication and media field, professional in telemarketing, social worker, musician, sport and reconditioning massage therapist, lawyer, translator and interpreter, teacher, psychotherapist, music therapist and a professional in data digitizing. For the people with a mild vision loss and those with a binocular vision impairment these following professions appear to be suitable: paperboy, gardener, florist, cleaner, baker, pastry chef, cook, cultural referent, an office worker. For the people with a moderate and severe visual impairment there are positions as warehouseman, IT worker, sound designer, psychologist, special education teacher, piano tuner, singer or a logistic worker. Blind or partially blind can also work in professions such as food and beverage taster and grader or as a librarian. The list of these occupations is general. In most cases it's necessary to take retraining course or search for the jobs in sheltered workshops.

The goal of Employment policy is not primarily to create job opportunities for handicapped people. Social services take into account the needs of disabled people with an emphasis on providing adequate, ethical and decent services, which leads to satisfaction and saturation of the obstacles and limitations of handicapped people. The Czech Republic has the necessary tools to determine the mandatory proportion of people with disabilities in the total number of employees. The mandatory proportion of 4% of people is calculated from the total number of employees. Therefore employers have a legal obligation to employ handicapped people, optionally the have a choice to complete it or replace it by purchasing products and services or by ordering from specific companies that employ disabled people. In terms of sheltered workshops, which employ more than 50 % of people with disabilities, the employment of these people is financed by hiring subsidies for people with disabilities in sheltered workshops in the form of partial reimbursement of expenses associated with the cost of wages and another expenses.