Take it from a blind guy: Impaired vision isn’t the obstacle

David Steinmetz

Submitted photo/Mark Skalny

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What are your thoughts on making technology available to aid blind people in gaining employment? Tell us in 300 words or less at yourvalley.net/letters, or email your comments, name, address and contact number to AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

OPINION — What I can see today is not what I saw yesterday, and it will not be what I see tomorrow. That is the reality of living with retinitis pigmentosa: constant change and the need to adapt in a world not built with blind people in mind.

Yet, with the little vision I have, I see systems and attitudes stuck in the past.

Policies affecting where people can live and receive services are being weakened. People with disabilities are penalized for working instead of being encouraged to build careers and greater independence. Despite years of promises, many organizations and government agencies continue to demonstrate through inaction that digital accessibility is not a priority.

Then we wonder why employment outcomes remain so unequal.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2025 only 41.8% of working-age people with disabilities participated in the labor force, compared with 78% of people without disabilities.

This divide will close only when employers challenge outdated perceptions, technology companies build accessibility into their products and policymakers advance common-sense policies that promote employment, independence and inclusion.

So, take it from a blind guy: Blindness is not the barrier. The barriers are outdated systems, policies and attitudes that refuse to change. Unlike my eyesight, those are things we have the power to change.  Challenge outdated perceptions, make technology accessible and stop asking us to overcome barriers you have the power and responsibility to remove.

David Steinmetz is community and public relations unit manager with Arizona Industries for the Blind, a Phoenix-based nonprofit established in 1952. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.