Project VIEW Is Live: What Losing My First Job Taught Me About Hiring Blind Talent

One week into my first job, I began losing my eyesight. Soon after, I lost the job. At the time, I thought I would never be employed again.

I am Tuan Rushdi, a blind disability inclusion and employment specialist in Sri Lanka, and the founder of Project VIEW. Project VIEW is now live at www.projectview.lk. This article explains what led to it, who built it, and what I am asking for next.

From losing a job to working in Human Resources

Rehabilitation taught me to use a computer through sound and to travel with a white cane. With those skills I returned to work and joined the corporate world again, this time in Human Resources, in learning and development.

Later, an Australia Awards scholarship took me to Flinders University for a Master of Disability Policy and Practice. I studied disability employment models there, and I brought that learning home to my work on employment for people with disabilities in Sri Lanka.

Australia Awards has told that part of the story. My entry was commended in the Australia Awards South Asia and Mongolia Alumni Impact Storytelling Competition, and you can read it here: Alumnus turning personal experience into opportunities for people with disability.

Two gaps in blind and low-vision employment

Losing that first job was not simply bad luck. I have since sat on both sides of the hiring table, as a blind job seeker and as an HR professional. From both seats I saw the same two gaps:

• Employers are unsure. Many do not know how a blind or low-vision employee would do the work, so they do not hire.
• Job seekers are untaught. Many blind and low-vision people have never been taught the workplace skills that would answer that doubt.

Neither gap is about ability. Both are about information and training that nobody provided. Project VIEW exists to close them.

What Project VIEW offers

Project VIEW stands for Vision-Impaired Employment and Workplace Readiness. Everything on the website is free, and available in English, Sinhala and Tamil.

• For employers: the Myth-Busting Toolkit. It takes seven common myths about hiring blind and low-vision people and answers them with facts from Sri Lankan workplaces and practical first steps.
• For job seekers: the Softskills Development Series. It covers self-advocacy, professional communication, teamwork, using AI for workplace productivity, and CV, interview and LinkedIn skills.

Built with blind and low-vision people, and paid for

I did not write the toolkit alone. I consulted blind and low-vision employees, blind and low-vision job seekers, HR professionals and employers, so that it answers the doubts employers really have with the experience of people who do the work.

Persons with disabilities also did the consultation, the translation, the proofreading and the web accessibility testing. Project VIEW paid them for that work. Lived experience is expertise, and expertise gets paid.

What I am asking for

A website does not change hiring on its own. People and organisations do. So here is my ask:

• Employers' federations, chambers and professional associations in Sri Lanka: work with me to put the Myth-Busting Toolkit in front of your members.
• HR leaders and employers: read the toolkit, and tell me which of these myths you have heard in your own workplace.
• Blind and low-vision job seekers: use the Softskills Development Series. It was made for you, in your language.
• Organisations of persons with disabilities: share the series with your members.

To collaborate, contact me through www.projectview.lk.

Acknowledgement

Project VIEW is supported by the Australian Government through Australia Awards – Sri Lanka, as part of Australia Awards South Asia and Mongolia. The views in this article are my own and not necessarily those of the Australian Government.

Project VIEW has one purpose: changing how Sri Lanka views blind and low-vision talent. The resources are ready. The next step belongs to the people who hire.