Challenges faced by Women With Visual Impairment in Living a Sustainable Livelihood
Authors: Kachaka Hildah , Imasiku Mwiya Liamunga 
Published: September 2021

The nature of the challenges faced by women with visual impairments remains

uncertain. However, studies have been done on women with disabilities in general but

none has focused on women with visual impairments. This study sought to establish

the challenges faced by women with visual impairments in living a sustainable

livelihood in urban areas.

A descriptive survey design was used in order to obtain a true and comprehensive

picture of individuality. Primary data was collected through interview schedules and

questionnaires.

Data was collected from women with visual impairments in selected government

line ministries. For those not in employments, data was collected from the central

business district where they parade to ask for alms from well wishers.

The target sample was all women with visual impairments registered with the

Federation for the Blind and based in Lusaka urban. Stratified sampling was used to

classify women with visual impairments into their economic status such as those in

formal employment and those not working at all.

Sixteen (50%) of women with visual impairments were in formal employment

while sixteen (50%) were on the street begging. Twenty-one (66%) of the women with

visual impairment revealed that they were not able to live a sustainable livelihood

due to the different challenges they faced while eleven (44%) stressed that they were

managing because they had a salary though it was not enough to cater for their basic

needs. From the findings it has been noted that women with visual impairments have

a lot of challenges on sustainable livelihood. Sixty-six (66%) of the women stated

that they were not able to live a sustainable livelihood, as most of them depended on

begging for their livelihood. The money they realised from begging could not meet

all their basic needs. The findings also reveal that the women with visual impairments

despite their level of education, could not be offered any other job apart from being

telephone operators. From the sixteen (50%) of women with visual impairments who

are in formal employment, eleven (69%) had attained grade nine while five (31%)

were grade twelve school leavers and yet they were doing the same job. The grade

twelve school leavers felt unfairly treated because sight had disadvantaged them in

the area of wanting to do other professions of their dreams. Further, it was found that

there were some cultural factors that contribute to the challenges women with visual

impairments face. In as much as they know that they have no sight, they feel they must

be appreciated as human beings just like the women with sight. The findings show that Challenges faced by Women With Visual Impairment in Living a Sustainable Livelihood

twenty (63%) of all the participants indicated that they were discriminated, segregated

and abused by the sighted in different ways. Eleven (35%) of the women with visual

impairment stated that as they were growing up, they were over-protected and over-

looked and this had contributed to their poverty situation today.

The results of the study indicate that there is a strong relationship between being

visually impaired and sustainable livelihood among women despite their education

levels. The study has also revealed that although there is so much awareness on

disability issues, women with visual impairments are still discriminated and excluded

from the mainstream activities. Therefore, stakeholders in disability issues should

address the plight of these women. Recommendations made include:

(a) Government and stakeholders in the welfare of women with visual impairments

should ensure that information on Citizen Economic Empowerment is

transcribed into Braille if the visually impaired are to benefit from the scheme.

(b) Government through appropriate authorities should reduce the number of

procedures involved in accessing the funds.

(c) Since education is a factor in improving the livelihood of an individual, government

through relevant ministries should build more schools and provide bursaries and

or scholarships to the visually impaired to attain vocational training.

(d) The visually impaired who have attained high school level should be allowed to

venture into careers of their choice.