Employment and sight loss

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This report brings together a more detailed analysis of the findings from the My Voice survey, with what we already know from the Labour Force Survey (published quarterly by the Office of National Statistics), DWP administrative data, and Network 1000 - research carried out by the University of Birmingham in 2005 - 2007.

The report also looks at correlations between employment status and a wide range of factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, overall health, education qualifications etc. It goes on to examine the support people receive to stay in work, the status of those looking for work, and the trend in blind and partially sighted people's employment status over recent years.

Report published March 2017.

Key messages

  • Only one in four registered blind or partially sighted people of working age is in employment.
  • This figure is even worse for people who are completely blind. Only around one in 10 people with poor functional vision is in paid employment.
  • There has been a significant decrease in the proportion of registered blind and partially sighted people of working age in any form of employment over the last decade from one in three in 2005 to around one in four in 2015.
  • The disability employment gap for registered blind and partially sighted people is around double that for people with other disabilities, and this gap is widening.