LABOUR INCLUSION

Telephone Switchboard

Law 113/85 Blind people are allowed to work as telephone operators for private companies and for public

offices and institutions

Public institutes: They must hire at least one blind telephone operator every switchboard and, once available further job positions as operators, they must reserve a 51%, of all positions, to visually impaired people

Private companies: they have to employ at least one blind operator

The arrival of telephone exchanges

Before technologies:There were at least 10.000/12.000 visually impaired people to function as telephone operators After technologies:there are no more than 7.000/8.000 blind people working in this branch.

Massotherapia

Hospitals and private clinics must hire at least a blind massotherapist

They must attend, for at least 3 years, a professional course at qualified institutes for blind (Naples, Florence, Padua)

Legislative evolutions:courses for physiotherapists have become academic and schools for blind people have never been recognised. So, the number of visually impaired massotherapists has decreased from 2.000 units to a few hundred

Teaching

Visually impaired teachers, as all other citizens, participate to open competitive exams, in which there is a 2% of reserved positions for blind people.

Blind teachers, keep teaching in public middle schools, not in elementary schools.

Blind people teach literary, Italian, greek, latin, history, philosophy and music

Unprotected Professions

Blind people carry out jobs like

State officials: lawyers, psychologists, state officials, Judges

Traders: Resale newspapers (for civil blind people)

Resale of tobacco (for war blind)