As Youth Day approaches, not only is youth employment a major concern for all sectors, but how to help young people with disabilities enter the workplace and stabilize their employment is also an issue that should not be underestimated. According to the Ministry of Labor's 2019-year survey on the labor situation of the persons with disabilities, the labor force participation rate of 20.7% is lower than the general public, and the unemployment rate is 8.1%, which is also much higher than the general workers. Among them, the employment participation rate of the visually impaired (17.9%) is 6.5% worse than that of the physically impaired (24.4%), indicating that the visually impaired are facing employment difficulties such as low willingness to help employers hire and lack of job opportunities. To enable the visually impaired to enter the workplace smoothly, Eden Rehabilitation Center for Visually impaired provides supported employment services to help remove various barriers to work through vocational rehabilitation, job accommodation, and the use of assistive devices for the blind and visually impaired, so that they can enjoy the achievements and values brought by be employed.

The 30-year-old Kuan-Lun, who wore glasses to correct his eyesight during his school years, was told that he had congenital retinitis pigmentosa during his military experience after graduating from high school, but his vision declined to 0.2 as he grew older. Coupled with night blindness and blind spots caused by visual impairment, he was unable to adapt to the job description and left the workplace 4 years ago. After a period of recuperation, Kuan-Lun wished to return to the workplace, but he repeatedly encountered obstacles in interviews due to his vision problem until May last year when he was referred to the Eden Foundation's Rehabilitation Center for the Visually Impaired through an Occupational Rehabilitation case manager. After the job coach assessed and understood that Kuan-Lun had not yet come into contact with aids for the blind and visually impaired, we arranged courses such as cane orientation, NVDA screen reading software, and computer for the blind and visually impaired to familiarize Kuan-Lun with the operation of the aids in order to prepare him with job skills and increase his employment opportunities.

Kuan-Lun was unable to find a job because of his eyesight, but he got a job and stabilized employed over 6 months through the supported employment service of Eden Rehabilitation Center for the visually impaired.

In September last year, Kuan-Lun went to an interview accompanied by a job coach that under Eden’s Job Match service, and was successfully hired for a telemarketing customer service position. After assessing the working environment, changed the computer screen from 22 inches to 27 inches, then used the computer for the blind and visually impaired, also magnifying glasses to facilitate reading information. Its help stabilizing his employment for over 6 months.Kuan-Lun expressed his gratitude to Eden for providing supported employment services and the companionship and care of the job coach, which helped him to go from worrying about being stigmatized because of his visual impairment to facing and accepting his visual problems and accepting to use the aids for the blind and visually impaired, gradually regaining his confidence and returning to the workplace to realize his self-worth.  he hopes that through his own successful employment experience, can encourage more youth with visually impaired to take up employment.

After evaluating the working environment, Eden's job coach for visually impaired help Kuan-Lun to work smoothly by job accommodation.

According to the Eden Rehabilitation Center for Visually Impaired, they provides supported employment services for the visually impaired, not only focusing on the development of individual occupational potential, but also on the training of work attitude, communication skills and public character, as well as job matching through individualized assessment, supplemented by job accommodation, improvement of hardware and software facilities, and provision of work adaptation support and training to help persons with disabilities return to society and secure employment. Administrative staff, telephone customer service, clerical work and other computer-related professions are not exclusive to the visually impaired, and they can also develop their talents if given the opportunity. Persons with disabilities also need stable jobs and have the right to dream. Therefore, Eden appeals to enterprises with suitable job vacancies or service needs for the blind and visually impaired feel free to call +886-2-2577-5689 to give persons with visually impaired the opportunity to embrace a brighter future.