Even if you are not registered as blind or partially sighted, you will be protected by the Equality Act if your visual impairment has a more than trivial impact on your ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
Which barriers are you likely to face at work?
- Accessing school and pupil documents;
- Moving around the school, especially on multi-site campuses;
- Carrying out playground duties;
- Going on school trips; and
- Accessing the school’s IT systems.
What kind of adjustments may be considered?
- Support worker/reader, to assist in marking etc.;
- Adjusting the location of a classroom (in secondary schools considering adjustments to journeys between classes and location of classes);
- School documents in an accessible format;
- Ensuring that school trip venues are accessible (this should be part of inclusive schools planning anyway);
- Adjust lighting levels in class;
- Adjustment to buildings such as guide rails and painting stair edges (which would benefit the whole school community and contribute to the wider inclusive schooling agenda); and
- Modified IT equipment-large screen monitors, voice recognition technology, braille displays and programmes that read through headphones are all options.
