Recruiters need to do more to get visually-impaired workers into employment, says one firm which has started to work with blind candidates.

Charlie Ryan, a commercial manager with JPA, met with representatives from the charity Action for Bind People last month, when she interviewed eight candidates to see if they were 'job-ready'.

"I found that there is a big difference between what they considered job-ready and what the private sector considers job-ready," Ryan told Recruiter.

Ryan said that visually-impaired candidates were not 'job ready' because charities did not have enough experience to know what skills private companies were looking for. She revealed that, of the eight candidates put forward, only two were suitable to go to the next stage of the interview process, one for a sales position and the other in IT support.

And Ryan suggests that recruiters can do more to harness the skills of blind and visually-impaired candidates, by placing adverts in larger font sizes and providing the right equipment, such as specially-adjusted computer monitors, to allow them to do their jobs.

"I think perhaps recruiters are discriminating without meaning to," she said. "We are closing off a market and the industry needs to be more proactive in embracing these candidates."

Grants and equipment are available from the Government's 'Access to Work' scheme to assist blind workers.

To find out more, contact Action for Blind People on 0800 915 4666 or visit the website at:  www.actionforblindpeople.org.uk.

• Let us know your views at www.recruiter.co.uk