Turning a blind eye to employers’ discrimination? Attitudinal barrier perceptions of vision impaired youth from Oslo and Delhi

Abstract

Young adults with visual impairments encounter a twin burden of attitudinal and access barriers, which inhibits their employment inclusion. There exists a dearth of comparative research focused on the negative influence of attitudinal barriers on their employment outcomes. This article juxtaposes previously un-researched barrier perceptions associated with employers’ discrimination of qualified YAVI from Oslo and Delhi. Employers’ discrimination is couched in the social model approach, and its nuances are understood through the concept of disablism. A qualitative case study was conducted from November 2017 to June 2018, wherein 29 YAVI (12 from Oslo and 17 from Delhi) were interviewed. This article demonstrates unanticipated similarities associated with the perception of employers’ discrimination in two dissimilar labour markets. It calls for further Global North South research to better comprehend the influence of employers’ discrimination and concludes with some potential recommendations for different stakeholders. Points of interest Globally, vision impaired people face difficulties to get employment. Employers discriminate against vision impaired people during the recruitment process in developed and developing countries. It is rare to come across comparative research involving Norway, a developed country, and India, a developing country. Comparing employment experiences of vision impaired youth across developed and developing countries is also scarce. For the first time, stories of discrimination from young adults with visual impairments from Oslo and Delhi are compared. These youths shared similar experiences linked to discrimination during job interviews. The voice of youth with visual impairments from developed and developing countries should be heard to better deal with the problem of employers’ discrimination. Based on the employment experiences of the vision impaired youth, recommendations are offered to policy-makers, prospective employers, disability organisations and other vision impaired youth to overcome discrimination.