A diagnosis of permanent vision loss is not the end. At Vision Australia it’s the start of a new journey for someone living with vision loss. And as Insight finds out, helping that person find employment is a big part of getting them on the right path.
“You can work.”
Three little words. Delivered by an ophthalmologist to a young woman contemplating the loss of her vision, but also her confidence, her way of life, her future.
“Life-changing”. The impact of those words on that same woman.
A little more than a decade after those words were delivered, Ms Vildana Praljack manages the employment services at Vision Australia, which helps others with low vision and blindness find work and careers.
She got there by working her way up in the organisation, gaining experience in practically every facet of its operation – from administration to government services and advocacy, client services to data analysis and insights.
Praljack even made cups of tea when she began as a volunteer.
But it all started with a diagnosis of cone-rod dystrophy, thoughts of life with a disease that would progressively rob her of sight, and a chair in front of ophthalmologist Dr Jonathan Ruddle. And all just a year or two before her 30th birthday.
“I thought, I’m never going to work again,” says Praljack. “And that’s the sort of societal expectations that you internalise and hold as your own.
“He told me you should be working, right? ‘You can work’.
“That sentence was something that reverberated, it really challenged some of the thinking that I had at the time.
“The idea of someone having that sort of conversation with the patient can be really life changing; it can be so transformative.”
It was not long after that she began pouring those cups of tea as a volunteer, then went one step further and applied for a job with Vision Australia.
For the past 18 months she has been leading the organisation’s employment team, helping people like herself to find that all-important job and career.
She knows the transformative power of employment.
“Everyone wants to have a few things, like obviously a safe place and a lovely home, beautiful relationships, and a job,” she says.
“It’s no different for anyone who has a disability, who’s blind or has low vision; it’s incredible the independence that they gain, the financial freedom, the choice and control, confidence, self-determination – all of it just changes a person, big time.”
Vision Australia helps between 80 and 100 people a year experience that change.
Many of those people are referred to them by optometrists, ophthalmologists and others in the ophthalmic sector. Vision Australia would love to see many more.
Because there are plenty of people in Australia who, like Praljack and so many others, are ready and able to contribute. Who remain on the bench, waiting for the call-up.
A large, untapped resource
Figures may show that national unemployment is at 4.1% but Vision Australia says that 53% of people with low vision or blindness are jobless. And one in five Australians have some form of disability.
That means, in a country so reliant on bringing in overseas labour to fill so many roles in a tight labour market, there remains a significant untapped resource within its own borders.
A resource that brings very particular skills.
“As a blind or low-vision person, you have to think outside of the box,” says Praljack.
“You’re problem-solving constantly, because the world is full of physical, societal, attitudinal barriers; it’s always there, and you have to always navigate those relationships, you have to always navigate spaces, you have to navigate the technology.
“So there’s always that sort of innovation, that ‘can-do’ attitude.”
She says those who are referred to Vision Australia get a lot more than merely the tools and support to find work.
“We have a chat to see where they’re at. It really depends on where the person’s at in their vision-loss journey.”
The end destination might be a career but the journey has many other meaningful waypoints.
“Do they have a safe place to live, how is their independence in the kitchen? Are they getting around safely in their community? Can they catch public transport? Are they using a computer?”
To help answer those questions, the person will work alongside occupation and mobility therapists, technology and accessibility specialists, and others.
They’ll also talk with vocational counsellors about what they might have done previously in a job, what they are looking for in work, and what they might need to do to get there. That includes help with CVs and cover letters.
Vision Australia also works with employers to make the recruitment and transition into a job as seamless as possible on both sides.
Both employers and prospective employees will have access to a number of federal and state government disability employment funds to support the person in the new role.
Praljack says the support from Vision Australia continues beyond the employee’s first day.
“We maintain an ongoing relationship with the employee and the employer because we want to make sure the candidate is settling in.”
Giving people a ‘fair go’
Vision Australia is normally associated with the start of a new job, but for Mr Daniel Leighton its involvement heralded the end of one.
Leighton was working in an orthopaedic rehab facility. It was a job he loved but a change in management, coupled with growing vision problems put a lot of stress on the working relationship.
Looking for support he contacted Vision Australia, which recognised two things: firstly, that the relationship with his employer was broken and beyond repair.
“We walked out of a meeting [with the employer] and Jenny the Vision Australia employment consultant said, ‘No, we can’t repair this, this is not going to work, we’re finding you another job’.”
And secondly, that Leighton had significant eye problems that needed to be diagnosed.
Sadly, the outcome of his many visits to various eyecare specialists was the same as Praljack’s: another young person with a devastating and debilitating eye condition. In this case, Usher Syndrome, which has left him legally blind, with just a five-degree field of vision.
That hasn’t stopped him from finding work, though.
Vision Australia asked Leighton if he’d like to contribute to a lived experience workshop. He handled himself so well, communicating effectively with people from all walks of life, that the organisation realised he was a keeper.
Jenny, the employment consultant who helped him earlier, is now his colleague at Vision Australia. Praljack is his manager.
But Leighton still needed to walk before he could run.
“If you saw my shins, they were just bruised and battered,” he says.
“I had the shins of an 80-year-old.”
He worked with an occupational therapist and orientation and mobility specialist. There were adaptations he needed to make so he could continue to be involved in the active lives of his three children – aged between nine and 14.
But he’s running now. Just maybe not as quickly as before.
He started at Vision Australia a couple of years ago as a support worker; now he’s an employment consultant.
He works with many people like himself – young, keen to start their adult lives but dealing with vision loss.
“They want a job, they want money, they want something, right?”
Praljack says it’s “about uplifting people, uplifting communities. And I think it really comes down to the idea that Australia is a country of having a fair go”.
More reading
Vision Australia – help beyond the store front
Vision Australia: Blind, low vision children need more support to start school year strong
Specsavers, Vision Australia stepping up for patients with low vision
