02 December 2025
Visually impaired (VI people make just as good employers as sighted people and if you are an employer who has decided to hire a VI person, or has just done so, congratulations to you for being a positive force in the world.
As I mentioned in my previous article talking about how VI people can be beneficial to your company, many employers have concerns and insecurities around how to make the workplace accessible and at what cost. The good news is that it doesn’t have to cost any more than what employing a sighted person would and that you can make your workplace accessible without having to restructure your company. Here are five simple things you can do that will make the world of difference for a VI employee.
1. This goes without saying, but ask. Every VI person is different. Some have a degree of useful vision, and some are totally blind. No question is too stupid or basic. Especially if you have no experience with VI people. And openness and transparency is essential for a good professional relationship. Even if you think you may know it all, or have worked with them for long, asking about things you’re curious about is still more than fine. Showing detailed interest in what your VI employee needs in order to carry out the job to the best of their abilities also sends a signal to them that you are an approachable manager who wants them to succeed. The initial conversations should ideally start at the interview stage and carry on once a job offer has been accepted, but it’s fine to wait until the acceptance stage.
2. Allow for flexible working as much as possible. One very good thing that has come from this pandemic is that the world discovered how much can actually be done from the comfort of our own homes. This is not just great because commuting can be both time consuming and stressful, but it saves the environment which we really need to think about with all this global warming going on. While not all jobs allow for home working and while there are some VI people who are hell bent on commuting because they prefer working in the office, or because they want to show how capable they are, (me in my twenties) many find a long daily commute as well as being in an office environment every day tiring and stressful. To use myself as an example from when I worked in offices, I spent a lot more mental energy making sure I got on the right bus or tube, got off at the right stop, concentrating on getting to the right desk at the right time, how to carry cups of tea from the kitchen through a crowded open office space, how to manage my breaks and planning when and how would be the best time to have comfort breaks, than actually working. It burned me out and made me lose a lot of confidence in myself and my abilities. I would be a ten times more effective worker if I was allowed to spend my time working in an environment where I have to spend minimal mental energy on my surroundings. This would mean I’d spend as many days as possible working from home. But because it’s important to have a face-to-face relationship with colleagues and there are certain things that are better done in person, I’d be happy to come in as needed. Of course, I’d have designed a support plan with my employer as soon as I’d accepted the job offer so the time I’d spend in the office would be as meaningful as possible to everyone including me. Offering flexible working where possible would allow each individual to decide how they would best benefit from working, which would ensure better work over all. Flexible working isn’t just beneficial to VI people, but offering it to everyone would make the workplace much more inclusive.
3. Get visual awareness training. In order to lessen the barriers to work for disabled people, it’s good for every company to get some form of disability awareness training. If you are awaiting a new VI starter, it’s good to get specific training around visual awareness for everyone who is going to be working with that person, even if a lot of the work is remote. Visual awareness training can include everything from how to best guide someone and what to think about in a health and safety risk assessment to how to best facilitate a VI person in a meeting or team building activity. There are companies out there who can make bespoke training for you and your colleagues including the RNIB and this training can be paid for through the Access to Work scheme.
4. Make reasonable adjustments. VI people in most cases need to use some form of specialist software in order to use a computer. This is where Access to work comes in. It is a government funded scheme aiming to make work accessible for disabled people. It’s your employee’s duty to send off the application, but it’s essential to have a conversation soon after the job offer stage where you, the employer should offer to assist with any part of it. Apart from Access to work, reasonable adjustments can be very simple such as flexible working, tactile bumptons or Braille labels on office kitchen supplies and copy machines, a designated desk if hot desking, an office buddy who can help with simple things like guiding to meeting rooms, toilets, kitchen etc, at least in the beginning. For health and safety reason, there also needs to be an assigned person who can help in a fire drill or emergency. The list could go on, but I wanted to illustrate with the points I mentioned that it really can be quite simple and straight forward.
5. General inclusivity. I wasn’t sure what else to name this final point, but by general inclusivity, I’m thinking of meetings, presentations and team building days. Always mention who’s in a meeting even if online and if someone is coming or going. Screenreaders will announce this on Zoom, but it’s good practice to always remember to do so anyway and especially in an in person setting. Send presentations out by e-mail ahead of a presentation or training day. This will have to be requested if a trainer is external. Powerpoint isn’t great for totally blind people, so offer a word or PDF version of it as well. And last but not least, plan team building activities everyone can benefit from. And if they can’t find an alternative for the VI colleague. For example, while I worked for the BBC, we had a team building day where we dug stuff up from the Thames. I couldn’t quite participate, so in stead, it was arranged that I was going to make a radio package on the exercise which I then got to edit and put together. While I’d rather do the same as everyone else, this was a pretty cool alternative that aligned with my interest and aspirations.
So there you have it. A little bit of thought, planning and open conversations can make the world of difference for your VI employee. And it could also ensure that you get a very loyal long-term staff member.
Source: LinkedIn
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