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I’m often asked: “what are you most proud of in terms of your time in government”?
My answer is: “many things”. From my days as Education and Employment Secretary 25 years ago, through to those as Home Secretary when the events of September 11, 2001, shook the world, and the Twin Towers in New York collapsed to the ground after a terrorist attack.
But the truth is, the most lasting impact of both my time government, and now as a member of the House of Lords, is simply this: to demonstrate that someone with a defined disability can not only work on equal terms but reach the highest levels of government in this country.
Plus the ability to talk to young people, as I still do, who were born without sight or have had the trauma of losing their sight later, and to reassure them and their parents that there is a future.
To demonstrate to employers that giving someone the chance to have an interview, to explain how they will adapt and use the resources of Access to Work to assist them in overcoming any practical barriers that might stand in the way of doing the job, is vital.
Access to Work is run by the Department for Work and Pensions, for which, at one point, I was responsible in government, and which allows for adaptations, technical equipment and – when someone cannot see – personal help with reading.
I had sincerely hoped that, in my small way, I was also changing wider attitudes towards disability, including of course towards blindness. I’m now not quite so sure, as I was previously, that my example has really changed minds.
I say this with some regret but the statistics that have recently been provided by research funded from the Vision Foundation, tell a story.
The Vision Foundation, like the Royal National Institute for the Blind, works with and on behalf of blind and partially sighted men and women, and I happened to be Vice President of both organisations.
The Vision Foundation has been concentrating on the issue of employment, or lack of it, for blind people.
Sadly, and despite the massive shortages of labour and the vacancies that exist in our economy, the situation has actually worsened for blind people over recent years.
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From one in three adults of working age having a job, we have fallen, as a nation, to just one in four. The situation for people with disabilities of all kinds is bad enough, but for those without sight it is deplorable.
What’s worse, is that this recent survey found that a quarter of employers weren’t willing to make adaptions for a blind person to take up work with them, or to manage the practicalities.
But there are thousands of blind and partially sighted employees doing phenomenal jobs in every part of our economy.
Not only earning their living, and therefore no longer being dependent on benefits, but also contributing their taxes and national insurance, and having all the dignity and self-respect which comes from being able to earn your living.
I’ve come a long way from those very early days of going to evening class, and day release from work, to get my qualifications to get into university and beyond.
Days when I wondered whether I would ever “make it”, and whether the barriers that stood in my way would be too much.
Now, my task is to persuade others to break new ground, convince the world around them that they really can do it and get society in general – employers in particular – to reach out and give those aspiring to work a chance to do so.
