About Us

The Visage Employers Group is about promoting the positive business case for making the effort to have full provision for the employment of blind and partially sighted people and for other disabled people. Additionally the group aims to support employers treat all people equally and to be able to abide by the Disability Discrimination Act and to provide the means to do so.

Why?

Disabled people are often the best to be able to access the market to disabled consumers for obvious reasons. People who are registered disabled are estimated to have an annual spending power of around £50 billion

Blind and partially sighted people often stay in jobs longer, have a strong work ethic, good punctuality records and low absentee rates. Of course this does not apply to all blind people – but as unemployment in this group is currently so high, they have a strong incentive to work well.

Retaining an employee who is losing their sight is generally cheaper and more cost effective than training up new staff. Similarly in a recent case a business that dismissed a member of staff who had lost their eyesight after suffering a stroke – without even attempting to make any adjustments to retain the staff member – was fined over £20,000. Mistakes can be a costly business.

Being a member in this group and employing blind or partially sighted people sends a positive message about the values and ethics of the company both to investors and staff but as well to customers and potential customers. Values and ethics matter more and more to the modern consumer – similarly any involvement by a business in discrimination against blind people is likely to impact negatively upon the image of the business.

Corporate Social Responsibility is not any longer the sole preserve of a handful of giant international corporations – nowadays it needs to be addressed by many medium sized enterprises. The Visage employers group is a cheap and easy way to be involved. For further information on how to join please contact us email etc.