Disability Strategy and Employment

Available for over a year

It may not come as a surprise to you that, for many years, unemployment rates amongst blind and visually impaired people have been consistently high. This is despite government efforts to combat this. Well, the recent release of two reports has put disability employment back on the agenda. We ask the Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson about this government's plans, outlined within their new disability strategy, to get more blind and visually impaired people into work. And the sight loss charity The Vision Foundation has recently published their See My Skills report. It gives a detailed but rather bleak insight into the employment landscape for blind and visually impaired people. We speak to two people with direct experience of seeking work, the charity's Chief Executive Olivia Curno and previous Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and now Vice Chair of The Vision Foundation, Lord David Blunkett about the report and what their charity is doing to help the situation.