Views of independence and readiness for employment amongst young people with visual impairment in the UK

Abstract

T here is concern that young people with visual impairment do not leave school adequately prepared for the workplace. Seventy young people from the UK with visual impairment (aged 16-19) took part in semi-structured interviews exploring how they define independence and how they predict they would deal with employment-based problems. Two overarching themes emerged: (1) how active/passive the young people felt they should be in solving problems (active-passive dimension), and (2) to whom (themselves or others) the young person attributed the responsibility for problems and solutions (internaliserexternaliser dimension). The results provide evidence of the importance of teaching young people disability-specific skills at school (an 'expanded core curriculum') which aims to maximise young people's independence while giving them a clear understanding of the accommodations to which they are entitled.

Exploring the lived experience of acquiring life skills with congenital total blindness: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…All the participants struggled to recall their lived experiences of the young adults receiving disability-specific skill interventions, during childhood and adolescence. This finding aligned with the results of Douglas and Hewett (2014), where it was found that ECC disability-specific skills were rarely mentioned by the 70 participants in that study. After prompting, the young adults’ descriptions of their lived experiences of acquiring disability-specific skills at school were largely negative (Opie, 2018).…”

“…A central finding of the study was that all the young adults had reached adulthood with significant gaps in their life skills. This finding supports well-documented concerns about young people with visual impairments completing secondary school unprepared for life as an adult (Douglas & Hewett, 2014; Hatlen, 1996; Ravenscroft, 2013; SPEVI, 2016). The findings revealed however that it was not that the young adult participants had failed to acquire life skills or disability-specific skills per se.…”

“…Concerns have been raised about young people with visual impairments completing their schooling, without having acquired the basic skills and understandings (life skills) needed to live an independent, safe, and effective life as an adult (Douglas & Hewett, 2014; Ravenscroft, 2013; SPEVI, 2016). Ravenscroft (2013) identified the predicament of students with visual impairment leaving school having achieved academically, but without the basic skills of independence needed, to secure a job, cope with daily life, and be able to function fully as a citizen.…”

Developing an inclusive learning environment for students with visual impairment in higher education: progressive mutual accommodation and learner experiences in the United Kingdom

“…Linked to this, literature elsewhere raises concern that the teaching of independence skills is often not given appropriate emphasis in school education (e.g. Sapp and Hatlen, 2010;Douglas and Hewett, 2014). Further, whilst many of the participants identified ways in which they are able to access their courses through assistive technology, several were limited in the amount of funding available to pay for equipment, the quality of equipment provided and the type of equipment they were provided.…”

‘Access to learning’ and ‘learning to access’: Analysing the distinctive role of specialist teachers of children and young people with vision impairments in facilitating curriculum access through an ecological systems theory

“…Within the spectrum of need created by visual impairment, a key barrier faced by children is important; nevertheless it is when they are considered together that the broader picture can be conceptualised. In strongly promoting the importance of the additional curriculum / ECC in preparing young people for employment beyond school, Douglas and Hewett (2014) offer the following cautionary note to illustrate how the additional curriculum should be considered to be only part of a more balanced solution:…”