Through my research I have had the fortune of following 80 young people with vision impairment over 11 years. I tracked their journey from school through to adulthood, speaking at regular intervals to establish what had happened since we last spoke, what had gone well and what could have been improved.

The aim was to observe the different pathways they followed and their experiences of them. Despite achieving relatively well academically in comparison to other Send (special educational needs and disabilities) groups, young people with vision impairment have persistently poor employment rates and are particularly vulnerable to becoming economically inactive. My colleagues and I wanted to understand why this was and identify possible solutions.

When I first started working with the young people when they were aged 14 to 16, they were full of optimism for the future. They wanted to become social workers and teachers and psychologists. Yet by the end of the study, when they were aged between 25 and 27, many had never experienced paid employment and could not see a pathway into employment. Through the testimonies of the group, we learned of a range of barriers they faced, many of which were specific to their vision impairment.

Due to a postcode lottery........

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