2007 PhD Thesis Final Revised.pdf - Curtin University

majority of people who had a degenerative eye condition. The ratio of vision
impaired people to blind people within the respondent sample was fairly consistent
with that contained in the population as a whole.
As previously discussed in sections 1.7 and 3.3, blind and vision impaired
people face significant difficulties because of the interlinked effects of lower rates of
employment, poverty and a lack of educational opportunities. The data retrieved in
the survey showed that the survey sample suffered similar problems and that they
contributed significantly to the disability divide. The data regarding employment
status showed a significant result in particular. 53% of the respondents were either
unemployed or retired. In order to verify only the unemployment rate, it was
necessary to separate the working age group from the retired age group. This has
been achieved through a cross tabulation analysis of the age and employment
categories.
Count
Age
Total
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Age * Employment Status Crosstabulation
Employment Status
Full-Time Part-Time Casual
Unemploy
ed/Retired Total
7 5 7 14 33
23 7 2 16 48
21 14 4 21 60
18 19 9 41 87
10 6 14 46 76
1 3 2 59 65
80 54 38 197 369
Figure 8.1 Table of age and employment status for respondents
Thus, 94 out of 228 respondents aged between 18 and 54 inclusive, or over
41% of working-age respondents were unemployed. As noted in Figure 8.1, this
percentage was higher than the figures discussed earlier in sections 1.7 and 3.3 but it
verified that people who were blind or vision impaired face a higher rate of
unemployment than the able-bodied population.
In addition, the income levels of blind and vision impaired people were very
low. Nearly 40% of respondents were earning less than $15,000 which suggested the
blind disability support pension was the sole means of income. In order to gain a
better understanding of income levels, it was important to view only the income
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