Transition into adulthood and work — findings from Network 1000

This article draws upon data from a large scale project called 'Network 1000'. Network 1000 seeks to survey the changing needs and opinions of visually impaired adults. Data have been collected from 1007 visually impaired people across Great Britain. This analysis focuses upon a sub-sample of approximately 250 adults aged between 18 and 42 years. In all cases, the onset of these participants' visual impairment was during childhood (i.e. under 17 years of age). The analysis presents data in relation to their education and employment, and reflects upon the factors that seem to be associated with both. It appears that earlier onset of visual impairment is associated with higher levels of educational achievement. There was no clear link between the current level of visual impairment (at the time of interview) and educational achievement. In terms of employment, those with higher levels of educational qualification were more likely to be employed. Those with lower levels of qualifications were more likely to describe themselves as 'long term sick and disabled' or 'unemployed'.

Employment rates amongst younger visually impaired people appeared higher for those who had childhood visual impairment than those who did not. This suggests a positive impact of education. Also, employment rates were generally much better amongst younger visually impaired people than those over 50 years old. Nevertheless, the reported employment rate of 40 per cent is still very low. Some time is also spent considering visually impaired adults with severe learning and communication difficulties and their lives following compulsory education, including possible explanations for their likely under-representation in the project sample.