This research uses post-pandemic survey data and thus provides an up-to-date picture of the difficulties that individuals living with visual impairment experience even in a robust job market. Photo: CDC. Click image to enlarge.

New research highlights the significant impact visual impairment has on an individual’s employment. These findings, according to the study authors, underscore the positive influence education can have on chances of finding employment among those with impaired vision.

Seeking to investigate the association between visual impairment and employment status due to disability, researchers used data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Adults 18 years of age and older were included and a multivariable logistic regression model was developed to evaluate the odds of unemployment (“laid off” and “looking for work”).

Individuals over the age of 65 as well as those who were retired, going to school, self-employed, seasonal or contract workers were excluded from the study.

The model included the following independent variables: gender, race, Hispanic ethnicity, urban residency, level of education, citizenship and self-reported vision. In this analysis, self-reported vision was categorized as seeing with “some” difficulty, with “severe” difficulty, “can’t see at all,” and “a lot of difficulty.”

In 2022, there were 27,651 adult NHIS respondents. Study authors reported that “the total employed and unemployed respondents (unweighted) comprised 16,838 individuals, of which 440 were unemployed. The resulting unemployment rate of 2.61% was slightly lower than the national unemployment rate that year of 3.6%.”

Data showed that variables associated with unemployment included education less than high school and high school; severe vision difficulty; Asian race; and Black race. Researchers observed that the odds of unemployment were slightly elevated for those individuals living in metropolitan areas while being born in the United States had a modest protective effect.

 “The single most predictive factor for unemployment was having an education of less than high school (OR 6.05),” the researchers wrote in their paper for Ophthalmic Epidemiology. Results showed what we might think of as a dose-response in other contexts. “High school grads were more likely to be employed than those with an education of less than high school; those with some college/associates degree were more likely to be employed than those with lesser levels of education,” they wrote.

“Targeting the educational and vocational training needs of those with visual impairment may be the most effective means of improving employment among those with subnormal vision,” the study authors noted. “The National Institutes of Health recently designated people with disabilities including visual impairments as a population for studying health disparities. Future research is needed to understand the barriers that the visual impaired have in obtaining ophthalmic care, formal education, and employment.”