The impact of information on employers’ attitudes towards employees with visual impairments

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Labor market discrimination against people with disabilities by employers is an ongoing issue. Lack of information appears to be a causal factor of employers’ negative attitude to the labor market integration of people with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: This study is intended to: a) examine the attitudes of 40 private sector employers regarding hiring and integrating in their business people with visual impairments, and b) explore the variation of the recorded attitudes after the application of a short informative program. METHODS: A relative structured questionnaire of 15 closed type questions was chosen as the research instrument and was distributed to the participants both before and after the application of the informative program, which took place via the demonstration of a structured booklet. RESULTS: The results of this research initially revealed negative attitude of the employers in most of the questions. Post the informative program resulted however significant differences in the responses of the employers on most of the questions in regard to their intention of integrating people with visual impairments into their business. CONCLUSIONS: It turns out, that through briefing is possible to change people's behavior, as the provision of information may result in the revision of existing attitudes.