Workplace eye safety can be enhanced with proper protection and accommodations. Learn about vocational rehabilitation and employment services for adults with vision loss.

Workplace Eye Safety and Career Support for Adults Living with Blindness and Low Vision

Eye injuries in the workplace are a major preventable cause of vision loss. Even if vision is not affected permanently, they can lead to missed time at work and reduce productivity. According to Prevent Blindness, up to ninety percent of workplace eye injuries can be prevented with proper use of protective equipment and avoidance of computer-induced eye strain. This post also discusses employment resources and accommodations available for those with vision loss.

Preventing Workplace Eye Injuries: Essential Safety Protocols

Common Hazards: Chemical, Mechanical, and Digital Strain: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nearly twenty thousand workplace eye injuries occur every year. These can be broadly divided into chemical injuries, mechanical injuries, and digital strain. Without proper personal protective equipment (PPE), the eye can be injured by toxic or irritating chemicals, shards of metal or glass, plastic or wood shavings, and others, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Additionally, placing computer screens too close to the eyes can overly strain them, causing eye fatigue, discomfort, and redness. To guard against this strain, Prevent Blindness recommends placing a screen 20 to 26 inches away from the eyes and below eye level, lowering glare, and harsh reflections and more.

Selecting the Right Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The AAO recommends wearing safety glasses with face shields if you work around flying particles or dust, goggles to protect against chemicals, and specialized eyewear when working around hazardous radiation, cutting or welding activities. All protective eyewear should conform with guidelines set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Employment Services for Adults with Blindness or Low Vision

Navigating Vocational Rehabilitation Programs
According to estimates from the American Foundation for the Blind, 44% of working-age adults were employed in 2024, as compared with 75% of those without vision loss. Finding employment can be a challenge for people adapting to loss of sight, but there are a variety of resources that can help. In the United States, each state, district or territory has a commission for the blind or equivalent agency. A main goal of these agencies is to help working-age adults with vision loss find employment. When a blind or visually impaired person opens a case with their local agency, that agency connects them with programs in career skills training and job development, including help with the job search itself.

Career Counseling and Job Placement Strategies
Few programs are designed specifically for blind or low-vision individuals looking for career training and counseling. However, your jurisdiction’s vocational rehabilitation agency and their job development specialists can identify and connect consumers with potentially beneficial career counseling or placement services. Additionally, career counseling not specific to those with vision loss may be available from schools or local institutions.

Creating an Accessible Workspace: Accommodations and Rights

Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities, either as job applicants or employees. Employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to these individuals both during the hiring process and the term of employment.

Assistive Technology: Screen Readers, Magnifiers, and Braille
Assistive technology plays a key role in employment for most people with vision loss. Screen readers, magnifiers, and braille displays allow these individuals to use a computer and interact with most of the popular applications used by employers in business activities. Those with little or no vision may use a screen reader, which converts the computer interface into spoken feedback or braille. Braille is accessed through a braille display, a separate device usually connected to the computer via cable or Bluetooth. Some braille displays can also function as standalone notetakers. Magnifiers enlarge elements on the screen beyond the normal range and may also provide additional features such as custom keystrokes and settings to make using the computer easier for those with low vision.

Simple Environmental Tweaks
Lighting and High-Contrast Signage: Aside from assistive technology, accommodating those with some vision loss can be as simple as ensuring effective lighting and creating signage with high contrast. This contrast, such as black text on a white background or vice versa, makes text stand out enough so that a person with low vision can clearly distinguish the text from the background where it’s located.

The Benefits of Hiring Individuals with Vision Loss

Tapping into a Dedicated and Diverse Talent Pool
People with vision loss come from all walks of life, have a wide range of qualifications, and study a variety of fields. Including those with vision loss in the workplace benefits workers with and without disabilities alike. As noted by Dana Van Dussen, Senior Director of Human Resources at the Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc., “people with a disability often bring new ideas to the table that have not been considered by others. They have to be innovative and ingenious in order to overcome the additional challenges they face. This opens the door to allow more creativity and solutions. The more inclusion and awareness, the more productivity you will see.”

Tax Credits and Incentives for Inclusive Hiring
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) can be claimed by employers when they hire a person from one of several targeted groups that have faced significant barriers to employment, such as those with vision loss. Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) recipients and vocational rehabilitation referrals, among others, are covered by this credit. Also, the Disabled Access Credit provides up to $5,000 for small businesses to offset the expenditures of hiring a person with a disability. More information can be found on this page from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Transitioning Back to Work After Sight Loss

Skill Development and Orientation & Mobility Training
Adapting to sight loss is a challenge even without the added barriers of relearning job skills. However, agencies such as each state’s commission for the blind or equivalent connect consumers with vocational rehabilitation programs that include skills training. Much of this revolves around learning to use computers with assistive technology. Additionally, state agencies allow consumers to access orientation and mobility services. This can involve instructing the consumer on how to get to and from certain locations, such as home and work, using walking routes or public transport. General instruction is also provided on transferable skills such as using a white cane or a dog guide, crossing streets safely, making mental maps, and learning to navigate the broader area. Instructors now also teach consumers to take advantage of new technology such as smart glasses; turn-by-turn navigation apps designed specifically for those with vision loss; and other apps like NaviLens, which uses barcodes to make signage accessible, or Oko, which tells the user when to cross the street based on traffic signals.

Building Confidence in Professional Environments
When returning to work after vision loss, confidence is built by knowing what the job entails, learning transferable skills that can be adapted from previous experience, knowing how to use assistive technology, and exercising effective self-advocacy when needed. As noted by Ablr Works, it’s important to remember that independence does not mean doing everything alone without help. People with vision loss should be comfortable relying on others when needed while leveraging their own skills and talents to benefit themselves and others.

Frequently Asked Questions About Workplace Accommodations

Who Pays for Workplace Accommodations?
Per the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are required to make reasonable accommodations during the hiring process and subsequent employment for workers with disabilities. For those with vision loss, these accommodations may include assistive technology, accessible signage, and others. The U.S. government offers tax incentives such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Disabled Access Credit to help offset some of the costs incurred.

How Do I Disclose Vision Loss to an Employer?
While it is illegal for employers to discriminate against those with vision loss in hiring, it is natural to worry whether one should disclose one’s disability during the hiring process. While there are varying opinions within the disability community around whether to disclose, there are no agreed-upon right or wrong answers, and the decision is often deeply personal. For some people and in some circumstances, there may be no choice but to disclose, such as a person with total blindness coming to an in-person interview with a white cane or dog guide. If you decide to disclose, be confident in your abilities and clear about exactly what you need from your employer. Enumerating your needs while emphasizing your competence demonstrates good self-advocacy, shows employers that you are capable and simply need some support, and reassures them that the accommodations process, with which they may not be familiar, is often much simpler than it may seem at first.

Can People with Legal Blindness Work in High-Tech Roles?
A resounding yes. Due to the proliferation of assistive technology, and with mainstream applications becoming increasingly accessible, people with vision loss are often very qualified to work in the technology sector. For example, many assistive technology products are themselves created by people with visual impairments, since they are among the best equipped to understand the needs of others like them. Coding is also broadly accessible, as it is text-based. Companies often look for programmers with vision loss, as they can test products for accessibility and play a part in building solutions. It is very possible for blind and low-vision individuals to have profitable careers in STEM fields, though according to the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), few programs are designed specifically to ensure an accessible path into many of these disciplines. It is important to raise awareness of the qualifications and capabilities of those with vision loss to make valuable contributions to STEM in general and accessibility in particular. As more people with vision loss and other disabilities work in STEM and high-tech environments, accessibility principles become key design elements rather than poorly implemented afterthoughts.