Accident insurance rates are based on the actual experience of a company, compared with the experience of other companies in the same type of business. Individual characteristics of workers are not considered when determining a company's insurance rates. Every study which has ever been done indicates that the safety records of blind employees equal or exceed those of sighted workers. In the terminology of the insurance industry, there is no actuarial evidence that blind workers are a greater risk. It is reasonable to assume that a blind worker faces the same risk as a sighted worker.
Problems arise when employers assume that the blind are in greater danger.
Simple alternative techniques exist which make it possible for blind people to do things which most people use sight to accomplish. Today blind workers operate power tools and other heavy industrial machinery safely and efficiently. Their employers do not pay higher insurance premiums. An employer who hires a blind worker may not be charged higher workman's compensation rates. Naturally, workers who are already blind when they are hired cannot collect workman's compensation based on blindness.