Making my way: A study on workarounds and social support among Visually Impaired bankers in India

Abstract

Reasonable accommodations are an important aspect for the organizational efficiency and effectiveness of persons with disabilities (PwDs) in organizations. Extant research has focused on the experience and role of PwDs before they request for reasonable accommodations. Through a phenomenological study of the human experience of visually impaired (VI) employees in Indian banks, this research explicates the experience of PwDs after reasonable accommodations have been granted to them in their organizations. It is observed that despite the provision of reasonable accommodations, VI employees often find it difficult to fulfill their job responsibilities. This difficulty faced by VI employees may be attributed to extensive paperwork required for their jobs and the need to use information systems that may not be fully accessible to the visually impaired. As a result, these VI employees are found to resort to workarounds in order to carry out their jobs, such that the nature of workarounds adopted varies with the type and extent of visual impairment. Furthermore, it is observed that VI employees require social support not only from their superiors and peers, but also their subordinates and customers to carry out their tasks.