Employment and Job Satisfaction of Visually Impaired People of Different Literacy Level in Dhaka

Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka Lecturer, Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka

Employment and Job Satisfaction of Visually Impaired People of Different Literacy Level

in Dhaka

Rayhan ara Zaman

Md. Shahrier Haider

Abstract

The aims of this study were to determine the relationship between literacy and employment of visually impaired people, to explore the employment opportunities and barriers of them in Dhaka and identify the relationship between job satisfaction and literacy level. The population was divided into three categories: the first category was the visually impaired people of Dhaka with no formal education; the second category was the employed visually impaired those who have mid-level education; and the third category was the employed visually impaired people with higher education in Dhaka. 27 visually impaired employees were selected from Dhaka using stratified, purposive and snow-ball sampling techniques. Four employers were also selected purposively. Two interview schedule and a job satisfaction scale were used for data collection. The study found that the employment opportunities of visually impaired in Dhaka is very limited. Moreover, they are facing a lot of problems which limit their opportunities. Negative attitude of general people and the employers is the biggest barrier towards their employment. The job satisfaction level of every interviewed visually impaired was lower. Among them the job satisfaction level of the third group with higher education was highest. It has been also found that literacy and job satisfaction have a significant relation; if literacy level increases Job satisfaction level also increases.

1. Introduction:

All are familiar with the term ‘disability’ more or less. It is a kind of physical and/or

psychological damage that is eventually permanent or stagnant, and that hampers the ordinary

life-stream of the impaired person. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and

World Bank (WB) report, 2011 the number of disable people in the whole world is one hundred

Employment and Job Satisfaction of visual impaired people 2

crores. It is also observed in this report that the number of disable people is 15% of the total

population of the world. Therefore, in accordance with this statistics, the total sum of the disable

people in Bangladesh is about one crore. Although they are not few in numbers, they are

blatantly oppressed and suppressed in the whole world that are again the most neglected part of

almost each and every society. It is again said that in case of fulfilling the proper rights of the

disabled people, United States of America is regarded as the role model of this world. Inspite of

this, the condition of the disable people is not satisfactory. While the employment rate of

common people is 80%, the employment rate of disable people is only 49.8% (Burchardt, 2000;

Wilde, 2001). More importantly, in the United Kingdom there are 2½ million disable people

with the ability to work properly, they are unfortunately unemployed (Berthoud, 2006). The

picture of this unfavorable condition of the disabled people is the same in India, Canada, Finland,

Poland, Spain, Denmark, China and others in the world. Among all disabilities visual impairment

is a kind of disability. It could be normally considered that their condition is not good than the

disable people that can be mentioned. There are 1.3 million visually impaired people in America.

Among them only 46% visually impaired people are involved in job sector (National Health

Interview Survey on Disability, 1994-95). And their income rate is 33% lower than the normal

employees. The condition of visually impaired people is worse in other countries of the world

(Steinmetz, 2006). There are 32% visually impaired people in Canada, 25% in UK, 40% in

France, 17.8% in Finland and 13.8% in Poland, who are involved in job sector. (RNIB,

September 2000). In china the employment rate of disable people is 44.8% (Wilde, 2001);

(Yu.S., 2010)and, on the other hand, their employment rate in India is 38% only(Abidi, 1999).

Above statistics on the visually impaired people denote the fact that they are in huge social

and economic disparity. They are not, therefore, leading a normal life in the whole world. While


America is regarded as the paradise of acquiring rights of the disable people, it is often heard that

they attempt to get their rights by issuing cases in the court. Their life is cursed, dehumanized,

unnurtured and oppressed in all cases in everywhere and even they are treated as a burden of the

society that is really pathetic.

Again, Bangladesh as one of the third world countries, the prevalence of disable people is

higher, and at the same time, the condition is worse. As there has not done any mentionable

research on the visually impaired people in Bangladesh, it is almost impossible to get right

information about the number and condition of these luckless people. One or two researches

have been done on this subject matter. According to these researches it is thought that the rate of

visually impaired people is 23% (IFB and CSID, 1999) to 30% (Sultana, 2010) of the total

disabled population of Bangladesh. Therefore, according to this research, it is assumed that there

are 23, 00,000 to 30, 00,000 visually impaired people in Bangladesh. Because of superstition and

poverty in this developing country people are not regarded as human beings let alone thinking of

their education, employment and empowerment. But job is an inseparable part of human life. As

they have no duty or job to perform or complete, their life seems to be meaningless. Because of

these reasons most of visually impaired people are poor. As they are poverty stricken, they are

being deprived of getting education. As a result, they are not getting any job. Because of being

jobless, they are being poor to poorer. It is impossible to get rid of this vicious cycle without

education. For this reason, education is essential. Most of the visually impaired people believe

that if they get enough opportunity, they could achieve higher education, and prepare themselves

as an effective and valuable member of the society. But the reality is that they are not getting

adequate scope for improving their condition. As the same time, although they complete higher


education, they do not get proper or no job for a lot of barriers from different sectors of the

society.

The study intended to reflect upon the current situation of visual impaired people in

employment sector and the education and skills essential for employment. It also focuses on the

employment opportunities and challenges they faced in getting and continuing a job. Another

focus of this study is determining the effect of literacy on employment of the visually impaired

person. The researcher compared job satisfaction of these people. It is expected that the findings

would contribute in the design and development of planned and systematic interventions towards

addressing the needs of the people with visual impairment in the country with specific reference

to employment.

1.1 Statement of the Problem:

The study intended to identify the employment opportunities and challenges of visually

impaired person in Dhaka. The researchers saw that most of the visually impaired people are not

employed. Though they are not employed, they are not empowered. For this reason, they are

deprived in every sector of development. It was thought that literacy would be a solution of this

problem. So, the study intended to determine the effectiveness of literacy in employment and

wanted to explore job satisfaction of visually impaired People at different literacy level.

1.2 Objectives:

The purpose of the study was to identify the employment opportunities of visually

impaired and the barriers they are facing every day in Dhaka. It also aimed to explore their


working environment, colleagues’ attitude, salary discrimination, administrative and

infrastructural barriers, attitudes of their employers and their job satisfaction level. Infact the

researcher wanted to reveal the actual employment scenario of visually impaired people in

Dhaka. It also wanted to determine the relationship between literacy and employment. At a

glance, the objectives of the study are to:

I. Identify the employment opportunities and challenges of visually impaired Person in

Dhaka.

II. Compare job satisfaction of visually impaired people with no formal education, mid-level

education and higher education.

III. Identify the effectiveness of literacy in employment of visually impaired person in

Dhaka.

1.3 Significance:

Visual impairment is not a curse, it is a reality. The visual impaired people of our country are

deprived in every sector. Though we are developing, there is very little concern about visual

impairment. Taking appropriate measures to give them equal opportunity, research in this sector

is very necessary. But, it is sorrow that quality research in this sector is scarce. Moreover, any

research which reflects the relationship between employment and literacy was not found. So, the

study aimed to minimize the gap and intended to provide information regarding this matter.

2. Methodology:

Data were collected from 27 employed visual impaired in Dhaka. Among them eight had no

formal education, nine had mid-level education means primary schooling to higher secondary


examination and ten respondents were higher educated. The respondents were involved in

different kinds of professions like mid-wife, chef, book-binder, Chalk productor and wrapper,

cane and bamboo furniture weaver, singer, Computer Instructor, telephone operator, NGO

worker, teacher, lawyer, acupressure instructor etc. Data was also collected from four employers

of visual impaired of different organizations.

The study was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. It aimed to identify the appropriate

employment opportunities and challenges, their job satisfaction and literacy in relation to it. The

study was carried out using two interview schedules (for employers and employees) and standard

a job satisfaction (JS) scale. This scale contained fifteen statements about fifteen different

aspects of job. It is a seven point scale; i.e.- ‘I am not at all satisfied’, ‘I am quite dissatisfied’, ‘I

am more or less dissatisfied’, ‘I am not sure’, ‘I am more or less satisfied’, ‘I am much satisfied’,

‘I am quite satisfied’ are the choices. Scores from 1 to 7 are assigned accordingly. The scores

obtained by a subject in all the fifteen items are added and the resulting total score is used as the

index of job satisfaction of the worker. The highest and the lowest possible total scores in this

scale can be 105 and 15 respectively, with 60 as the midpoint. The higher the score, the more

satisfied the worker is. The score obtained from JS scale determined the job satisfaction level of

the respondents. The semi-structured interview for the employed visual impaired person

contained 18 items. Among the 18 items six items were demographic information related and the

rest twelve were research objective related. The items were open-ended and the respondents had

the freedom to provide information according to their wish. At first, the semi-structured

interview schedule was administered on the respondents and then administered the JS scale

consecutively. It took 45 minutes on an average to complete the semi-structured interview

schedule and the JS scale on each of the respondents. The semi-structured interview for the


employers of visually impaired person contained 16 items. Among the 16 items two items were

demographic information related and the rest fourteen were research objective related. The items

were also open-ended. It took 20 minutes on an average to administer the semi-structured

interview schedule on the employers. F-test (ANOVA) also performed to estimate the

relationship between literacy and job satisfaction.

3. Findings:

The study divided the findings in two main parts; the first part was employment situation and

opportunities and the second part was job satisfaction. The first part described the working

environment, colleagues’ attitude, salary discrimination, administrative and infrastructural

barriers, and attitudes of employers of the visual impaired respondents. The second part focused

on the job satisfaction level and the relation between literacy and employment.

3.1 Employment situation and opportunities:

80% visually impaired respondents and all the interviewed employers informed that employment

opportunities of 80% visually impaired people are insufficient in Bangladesh. They claimed lack

of political commitment and negative attitude as the main cause of their opportunity lacking.

Most of the employers (75%) viewed that they are able to perform almost any job: lawyer, artist,

accountant, secretary, customer service representative, food service worker, factory worker,

financial analyst, teacher, medical transcriptionist, day care worker, counselor, computer

programmer, cook, sales-person, clerk, and more. We cannot count the number of different jobs

people who are blind or visually impaired are engaged in today or will be in the future. The

possibilities are tremendous. (Careers for Blind and Visually Impaired Individuals) They are not

getting jobs because general people do not have the idea that visual impaired people can work.


55.56% respondents shared they faced great difficulties in getting jobs, when 18.5% faced little

difficulties because they took different training besides their academic education. Two of them

identified the Government tax reduction policy in employing disable people as the factor of their

employment. Training period was also challenging for every visual impaired respondents. 59.3%

(16 out of 27) said they didn’t face any problem at the time of their training. They took training

by disable trainer from disable friendly organization. They believe if they trained by non-disable

trainer they would face difficulties. Provided Braille books, hand-outs, and booklets played a

positive role in their training period. 25.9% (7 out of 27) faced little problems. But 14.8% (4 out

of 27) faced severe problems during their training. One of the informants who was a lawyer

described his miseries like that, “One advocate has to assist his senior to learn his duties and

activities. The seniors can’t teach the juniors by direct practice and training. They had to learn by

seeing the working type, dictation and advice of their seniors. My senior didn’t teach me

practically. But he was empathetic for me and told to hear his dictation carefully. I couldn’t help

my senior, so he didn’t pay me. I was in serious economic crisis and found another way (home

tuition) for earning money. In spite of this I didn’t give up, I continued learning from my senior

and after 6 months I succeeded to learn drafting a case. Then, I started advocating free and won

in some cases. My clients collected new cases for me. I started lobbing to be an APP which is a

government post and succeeded to be. This post automatically brought me new opportunities.

Struggling a lot finally I succeeded and become an honorable lawyer of Supreme Court.”

Continuing and maintaining job responsibilities is another great challenge for them. Many

employed visual impaired (44.44%) are facing different types of problem. Transportation, failure

in reading print materials, ineffectiveness of JAWS software in reading bangali, neglience and

negetive attitude of colleagues and general people are the main barriers. One of the respondents


shared that once a patient came to him for treatment but seeing him a visual impaired the patient

disagreed to take treatment and left. Another respondent shared his experience like that,

“Sometimes my colleagues come and left papers for me without giving any sign. If they don’t

tell how can I know someone is here! If it happens I can’t do the work, because I am unable to

differentiate among print materials. Many important papers are lost in this way. If it happens I

can’t explain the cause and face a very embarrassing situation.”

The respondents claimed salary disparity as a common problem for all of them. Some of

them are not getting equal employment, some are deprived in other facilities and some are not

getting payment at all. They study found that in some cases the salary of other impaired people

(physical and hearing impaired) is less than the normal employees and the salary of visual

impaired is again lower than other impaired people. Employers think though they can’t see so

they can do less job. For this their salary is lower than the others.

Chart 1: Response of participants (%) about salary discrimination


The study found that no office building maintains the building code which permits the

impaired people to move safely and independently. It is the visually impaired employees who

had to adapt with the building infrastructure, not the building. Moreover, some the office

building infrastructure is malignant as the stairs are dirty and narrow, don’t have enough space

and toilets. Vagabonds and addicted people nearby and it smell bad as the building is in an

unhealthy place.

The employers view about their visual impaired employees is, sometimes they face problems

working with them as they are very sensitive, arrogant and suffering from inferiority complex.

But they (75%) informed their visual impaired employees are able to bear their duties and

responsibilities. The employers said literacy is a key factor in their employment. All the visual

impaired respondents accepted the importance of literacy in their employment. They agreed that

if they had better educational qualification they would get better jobs.

Chart 2: Role of literacy on employment of Visual Impaired


3.2 Job satisfaction:

The study found from the scores of the JS scale that the job satisfaction level of visual impaired

employees is lower. Among them the job satisfaction level of the first group with no formal

education is the lowest (51.38), the job satisfaction level of the second group with mid-level

education is lower (59.56) and the job satisfaction level of the third group with higher education

is the highest (76.7).

With No formal Education

Mid-level Educated Higher Educated

61 57 89 69 57 58 46 81 69 42 60 87 51 52 88 57 56 60 40 57 99 45 56 73

60 83 61

Average= 411/8= 51.38

Average= 536/9= 59.56

Average= 767/10= 76.7

Table 1: Job satisfaction level of visually impaired respondents

The study aimed to determine the job satisfaction level of visually impaired people at

different literacy level in Dhaka. Three sets of scores were collected using the job satisfaction

scale. Using these scores the researcher performed F-test to identify the relationship between job

satisfaction and literacy. Calculating the formulas of F-test the study found the values of Fcal

(11.64). The study also found the value of Fα (3.40) at 95% confidence level from the F

distribution table. The rule is that if the value of Fα is greater than the value of Fcal the null

hypothesis is accepted and if vice-versa the null hypothesis is not accepted. According to the


purpose the null hypothesis was, Yhere is no significant relationship between literacy and job

satisfaction. The value of Fcal (11. 64) is greater than the value of Fα (3.40). It signifies that the

null hypothesis is not accepted. So, the study proved that there is a significant relationship

between literacy and job satisfaction.

4. Discussion:

To ensure development of people with visual impairment, it is imperative not only to ensure

that they are groomed-up with essential education and skills but also to create scopes and

opportunities to utilize their acquired capacity through employment. Employment of people with

visual impairment in a just and fair environment of equal opportunities and scopes will ensure

economic boost and contribute in the reduction of poverty. If poverty addressed, positive

influence will occur improving the situation of people with visual impairment in the country.

Moreover, to create a positive change in the employment situation for them, there is a need to

learn from both the negative and positive experiences. Interactions must also be made with all

the stakeholders with regard to employment, both at Government and Non-Government sectors.

Experiences of countries that have been gaining positive results must be shared to identify areas

that could be replicated in Bangladesh. Only in-depth analysis of all these knowledge will lead us

to formulate policy guidelines and devise actions that could address the needs essential to change

the situation of employment of people with visual impairments.

5. Recommendation:

Followings are the recommendations of the study to expand the scope of literacy and

employment of visually impaired people:


Most of the respondents (80% of the visually impaired employees and 100% of the

employers) informed the employment opportunity is insufficient. They are getting some

opportunities in many NGOs but the posts for them are limited and restricted. Many

organizations are working for Visual Impaired person’ right, arranging different

programs, bringing donations; even they don’t want to give them jobs. The Bangladesh

Government has a policy which reduces tax of the organization if it employed disable

people. If the Government strengthens this policy and makes employing disable people

mandatory in selected posts, the employment opportunities of visually impaired people

will increase.

Orphans have no impairment and physical disable people have lower challenges than

Visual Impaired persons have. So, orphans and physical disable are getting privilege in

the 10% government quota. For this reason, visual impaired people are getting fewer

opportunities to Government jobs. Reserving some posts only for visually impaired

people may be a solution of this problem.

In-spite of hundred barriers, many visually impaired people are working in honorable

positions. Their success stories may motivate other visually impaired, their guardians and

the society. So, it is important to telecast and publish their success stories. Radio,

television, newspapers, journals and other Medias can play a vital role in this area.

Visually impaired can’t do every type of works. Even if providing appropriate training,

direction and environment they will be capable to accomplish most of the duties. The

number of training centers for visually impaired is very limited. It is important to increase

the number, scope and opportunities of training centers for visually impaired people.


The infrastructure of most of the office buildings is not friendly for a visually impaired

employee. Thinking it wastage of money no one follows visually impaired friendly

building model. If Government and RAJUK take initiatives to make all the office

buildings convenient and friendly for visually impaired, they will face less difficulty in

continuing their jobs.

Literacy improves job satisfaction level of visually impaired people. But many visually

impaired people are not getting the opportunity to come to school and complete

education. The Government has to strengthen the inclusive education and expand the

scope and opportunities so that every visually impaired can go to school and receive

formal education.

6. Conclusion:

“We are disable people. People want to keep us in the boundary of charity and alms. They think

it is enough for us."

This dialogue reveals the real situation of disable people in Bangladesh. People think

disability is a curse; it is a matter of hiding and feels embarrassed for it. Visual impaired people

are deprived in every aspect of life. They are neglected and counted as a burden. It is compulsory

to eradicate negative attitude from the society to count them as an equal participation of the

society. Besides, it is a mandatory to determine their right to education. The study concluded that

literacy is a good contributor in the field of employment and job satisfaction of visually impaired

people. It is quite impossible to make them independent and self-sufficient without literacy. The

study will be successful if we can eradicate/ overcome the negative attitude and make equal

opportunities in education and employment for the people with visual impairment.


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