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	TX: 08.10.09 - Blind in Business PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

	Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 麻豆约拍 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON The charity Blind in Business wants to remind employers how many talented blind graduates there are around at the moment, it also wants to help any employer taking on a blind or partially sighted person. Simon Meredith is a founding trustee of the charity - it was set up 17 years ago to help blind and partially sighted graduates to compete for jobs - and I asked him how many blind or partially sighted graduates there are. MEREDITH It's a little difficult to tell, we think about 500 get accepted each year into educational institutions up and down the country - colleges, universities - but there's quite a high drop off rate and about 300 graduate each year I think. ROBINSON When you say up and down the country do you mean the UK? MEREDITH Yes. ROBINSON And what proportion of the graduates' market then does that 300 or so make up? MEREDITH I believe it's about 0.1%. ROBINSON So these are tiny numbers we're talking about? MEREDITH They are tiny numbers we're talking about but on the flip side it's a problem that people can really do something about. ROBINSON Hetal Bapodra is a recent graduate and she now works for Transport for London, Hetal what did you take your degree in? BAPODRA I did my degree in media studies, concentrating on radio production. ROBINSON Where was that? BAPODRA At Westminster University. ROBINSON So how did you then set about trying to find work? BAPODRA It was very difficult, I came out of university really having no idea, you go into university and they tell you're the greatest thing in the world and then you come out and you're basically on your own. So that's where Blind in Business really helped me gain the skills and knowledge of the job market that I really needed. ROBINSON And how difficult is it out there? BAPODRA Incredibly difficult. It's - we like it not to be but it's a sighted world and visually impaired people have to fit into that world. So that might mean that your CV and your application forms have to look like everybody else's and when you're blind that's very difficult. ROBINSON So Simon Meredith, what is it then that you're going to do to try to help? MEREDITH Well today is World Sight Day and as part of World Sight Day we're launching the beginning of a 12 month campaign for Blind in Business - Eye for Talent. And what we aim to do with the Eye for Talent campaign and with our launch at the London Eye this evening is to put together employers and this talented pool of blind and partially sighted people, help to educate the employers a bit and help to tackle some of the barriers that there currently are to employment for blind and partially sighted people. ROBINSON Well Chris Holmes is supporting this campaign, he's blind, he's a swimmer and he won nine Paralympic gold medals, he is also a practising lawyer. What was your experience then of trying to find work Chris? HOLMES I think I was lucky. I first started off trying to get a training contract and came across a whole variety of different firms but the firm I finally ended up with was incredibly positive and really just asked the question - how can we help, what can we do, what do we need to do - what are the practical issues we need to address? I was able to furnish them with that information and it just worked incredibly well, I was incredibly lucky - certainly hearing other people's stories, I think I was lucky to have that - such a positive experience in my first job. ROBINSON And have you just gone on from there - no problems? HOLMES There's always going to be issues and a lot of it comes down to people's prejudices, a lot of people maybe have had no experience of blindness, so they have no understanding. It's a two way process, it's about educating employers and the other employees in firms, so they understand and can appreciate what the situations are and also ensuring that blind and partially sighted people are in the best position to be able to be really top quality candidates when it comes to the interview process. ROBINSON Simon Meredith I know that you were also a lawyer and it is said isn't it that there are a number of blind people in the law, that it probably is one of the better places to try. How did you get your first job? MEREDITH I'm not aware it's one of the better places. ROBINSON Is that true, it's just something that I have heard? MEREDITH Well no there are a lot of - I think traditionally it has been somewhere that blind people have gone, I think, the law as a profession. I mean I think it was an incredibly printed world, it was an incredibly written world - the law. It has now turned into an electronic world and that plays into the hands of people like Chris and I because electronic communication is what we want because of the specialist technology that's available, we can then have access to the information we need access to. So now, my job, and probably Chris's too, is a lot easier than it was when we first started. I mean like Chris really I was - luck played a large part in why I got a job. The firm that I was taken on by and worked at for seven or eight years or so - Slaughter and May - just really approached me from the perspective of I was somebody they wanted, therefore what did they need in order for me to become a lawyer there. And that was quite an enlightened attitude at the time and that came down to the specific people that I was interviewed by - their attitude to me and their attitude towards blindness and disability. And a lot of other people aren't fortunate enough to have that sort of luck. ROBINSON You see as an employer I would guess it's pretty easy to grasp what the problems might be if you take on somebody who's blind or partially sighted but you couldn't be expected, could you, to know how to solve them? MEREDITH Well as an employer what are the problems, what are the reactions? I think there are misconceptions clearly, I think there are probably misconceptions and reactions on two levels. One's a sort of emotional personal level - how on earth would I, this person, the employer deal with being blind, it must be awful, how can you even walk up the stairs or go to the loo on your own or find your way to the staff canteen. There's an emotional reaction to blindness I think and disability and you need to get over that as a person who's looking for employment. And then there is the employer reaction, which is perhaps more of a professional one, well what's the cost to me going to be, surely it's going to be harder and surely it's going to be more expensive to employ somebody with a disability than it is to employ somebody who hasn't got one? So I think that's where the misconceptions come in. And I think - to answer your question - they can't be expected to know what the solutions are and hopefully an organisation like Blind in Business can be there to help them through the process and help the blind or partially sighted person also through the process of educating the employer a bit. There's a lot of willingness out there but I think that willingness has to be channelled in some way and you have to dismantle these misconceptions and make people appreciate that there's a talented pool of people out there, it just happens they're blind and partially sighted. ROBINSON And it's fair to say, isn't it, that not only are there some technological advances and solutions to some of the things, as an employer might imagine are going to cause difficulties, but also there is government money available, so it doesn't have to cost you anything. MEREDITH That's right, there is government money available, importantly through the Access to Work scheme and access to the Access to Work scheme has become easier over the last two decades as well. So there is money available and there is IT available. ROBINSON Hetal, you said that you trained as a broadcast journalist, you're working now at Transport for London, what are you doing there? BAPODRA I work in a customer service role within the road safety unit. ROBINSON Are you over qualified for the job that you've got? BAPODRA I wouldn't say necessarily I was over qualified, I'm using the skills that I had to learn, I had to learn how to use the Microsoft Word package effectively enough for me to do my job, I had to learn how to write business type e-mails, which I wouldn't have necessarily learnt how to do had I been in the radio industry, which is what I planned to be doing. ROBINSON Simon Meredith, making a bit of an effort then to recruit someone with a disability, is there any evidence that's it's going by the board in these more difficult times? MEREDITH I think it inevitably must be going by the board in these more difficult times and there's a Network 1,000 survey, produced by the Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research, which tells us that of the 18-29 year old visually impaired population only 33% are employed. Now I'm not sure exactly when that survey was dated but it pre-dated the current financial crisis and current recession. So I think necessarily the feelings that it must be more expensive and more difficult to recruit a visually impaired person are going to be heightened in the minds of employers at times like this. ROBINSON That was Chris Holmes, Hetal Bapodra and Simon Meredith. If you'd like to know more about that charity and its campaign or if you want some information about grants to employ disabled people there is a link to their website on our website. Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 麻豆约拍 is not responsible for external websites

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