Visualise a young boy sitting in class keeping a low profile at the back. The teacher puts a question up on the blackboard, and then says write your comments on the paper. He then adds that he needs them in 45 minutes. A boy pops his hand up. Teacher responds "Yes Miller". And the child answers "What does the question say Sir". Teacher says "Come down to the front Miller". A petrified 11 year old starts to walk down to the front of the class. Not knowing what to expect.

Reading the child's body language the teacher says "Here is a desk and chair - bring all your bits and pieces to the front, that should be better for you". After that it is all history for pupil Miller - eye test and then glasses to aid vision. I am sure that a large proportion of the population can empathize with this. The trouble with a health issue is it can creep up on you and you only really notice when it is critical. That is in this case when you cannot see the contents of the blackboard.

This nicely leads me into our story. Can you imagine that you have perfect vision, it slowly (or quickly) deteriorates - you can't make out whether the instructions on the frozen food packet say 4 or 24 minutes to microwave. Taking a guess you go for the 4. Then one day you realise all is not well and your vision has deteriorated more or less completely. This is now where I will let Scottish Labour MP John Robertson complete the story with a quote from his speech in parliament.

" Last week I listened to a speech from an inspirational man, Roger Lewis, and I think his story says more about this Bill, than my contribution ever could. Just under four years ago his sight deteriorated to a point when he felt unable to work either effectively or safely without support through workplace adjustments or special equipment. Roger's employer, a Local Government Social Services Department, suggested that he go to a doctor to be signed off sick. Following his refusal to do so, on the grounds that he was not unwell, he was sent home on full pay and told not to come in.

Roger did not hear from his employer again until 12 months later when they began a redeployment process to relocate him to another position. Their idea of assistance for this was to provide him with a magnifying glass. A year on from this Roger, an employee of twenty years, had been given his notice and was left waiting by the phone, ten minutes from redundancy. The call to prevent this only came from his union, after the threat of a hearing at an Employment Tribunal forced his employer to finally change their approach.

Subsequently he was given three months away from work at one of RNIB's specialist colleges, to train in using specialist computer software for visually impaired people. Only now has he been given the necessary support and equipment to enable him to do the job he was always capable of doing. This process, which would have, and has, broken many others, was described by Roger as "4 years of distress, depression, chaos and pressure, to demonstrate, that despite being blind, I was still capable of doing my job."

His is by no means an isolated experience and the questions of course, are, why does this happen and why do we let it happen?".

To avoid this sort of issue Scottish MP John Robertson (Glasgown North West) has put together a Private Members Bill - Employment Retention Bill 2007-08 which has had its first reading and a second reading took place in May this year. It is John's endeavour to push this legislation through parlaiment. Hopefully if will complete the full parlaimentary cycle during this year. The good news is that if it does it should enable people to stay in employment despite their disability.

(Article by Charles Litster)