Mentoring and Self-Employment: Potential Strategies to Promote Labor Force Participation.

Background: A large portion of the population of people with visual impairments are neither working nor looking for work. Mentoring and self-employment are two strategies to encourage workforce participation, but little is known about whether people with visual impairments who are out of the labor force were offered or were interested in these options.

Objective: We explored whether participants were interested in or had been offered mentoring or self-employment assistance to encourage their participation in the workforce.

Methods: Thirty participants with visual impairments and out of the labor force were interviewed about their thoughts and experiences regarding mentoring and self-employment. A qualitative software program assisted in coding responses, identifying themes, and organizing demographics.

Results: Participants tended to be interested in but did not have access to mentors. Some participants explored self-employment opportunities and even more were interested in it, but few were offered it as an employment option by a vocational rehabilitation provider. Most participants were interested in learning more about self-employment job opportunities and how income earned through self-employment might influence other benefits.

Conclusions: Opportunities to support people with visual impairments in locating mentors or engaging in self-employment appear under-utilized. Participants in this study appeared interested in receiving support from a mentor and learning more about self-employment options. Efforts to improve the labor force participation rate among people with visual impairments should include assistance in finding mentors to promote adjustment to blindness and becoming employed and exploring opportunities for self-employment. Vocational rehabilitation agencies should consider examining their policies and practices to promote greater access and use of these strategies to bring people with visual impairments into the labor market.