World Braille Day: Khan’s employment journey

Khan’s experience shows the practical value of braille in the modern workplace, recognises the amazing support provided by Khan’s employer, as well as the wraparound services provided by CoAct service partner VisAbility to make his dream a reality.

Meet Khan

Khan is described by his VisAbility recruitment team as an exuberant young man. He’s been blind since birth and since graduating university and a public sector launch program for graduates he’s been working towards a career in HR.

How CoAct service partner VisAbility helped Khan find a job

Khan has been successful in securing a position in the highly competitive graduate program with the Department of Justice. In January this year, before he started, his VisAbility recruitment team met with several representatives from the Department of Justice to talk through the challenges and opportunities presented by the graduate program placement.

Khan and his employer were supported through the JobAccess process, and VisAbility Assistive Technology specialist David assessed his workplace needs. In response to this assessment, JobAccess allocated over $25,000 in funding to ensure Khan had the software, training and equipment required to commence his role.

A range of VisAbility services were engaged as part of this process and Low Vision Store assisted with accessing a range of workplace resources for Khan including:

• a Brailliant braille display to assist Khan with managing emails and computer access
• a braille labeller
• JAWS reader software to increase Khan’s independence and access to vital software packages
• a Pearl camera and software to assist with hard copy information management
• a Miniguide mobility aide
• support from JAWS software guru Manny who was engaged to work with Khan and his DES support worker Lianne to work through the numerous software packages required for Khan’s new role
• support from the orientation and mobility team for Khan to independently navigate his new work environment
• ongoing tailored employment support provided by VisAbility’s DES team in collaboration with Khan’s new employer to ensure an ongoing positive experience in the workplace.

Finding Khan a transport solution for his work commute

Once Khan started his new job it became clear that there were some difficulties with accessing public transport, and travel to and from work by taxi was too expensive.

VisAbility’s DES team coordinated Khan’s engagement of Black & White Cabs, a registered NDIS provider, to help solve these transport issues. Since then, Khan has now linked in with Hasmukh, VisAbility’s orientation and mobility specialist, to become more independent travelling to and from work.

The impact of Disability Employment Services support for Khan

Khan is now on his second rotation of his role and with the support of team member Lianne the VisAbility DES team are seeing a real shift in Khan’s perspective of workplace challenges.

The team shares that, “Khan is happy and excited about his future at the Department of Justice and his manager has indicated that they would like to take him on as a full time employee once the graduate program has finished.

This employment journey has seen Khan evolve from an aspiring student to a self-confident employee with a can-do attitude. He has not been phased by the need to move departments as part of his graduate program rotation, even though this meant learning new office layouts, building new routines and working with new staff and systems.”

In fact Khan says, “It’s been bloody awesome and a much more positive experience with VisAbility than with my last provider.”

To top it off, Khan has also been asked by JobAccess and the Department of Justice to do a presentation about his employment journey and professional success.

VisAbility accessed a range of professional services to help Khan achieve independence in the workplace as his career evolves.

Register here today if you would like to find out more about how CoAct and our service partners in your local area can provide dedicated job search support, jobseeker programs to help you reach employment goals, and ongoing support when you’re employed.