VISUALLY impaired UK and French exchange students visited a Worcester technology company to find out about employability access for blind and partially sighted people.

Six young adults from Royal National College for the Blind in Venns Lane, Hereford and Cité Scolaire René Pellet, RNC’s partner college in Lyon, visited Dolphin Computer Access on Blackpole Estate West to hear from Dolphin staff around topics such as technology, accessibility and mobility within the workplace.

The exchange visit was funded by the Charles de Gaulle Trust, which is affiliated to the British Council. Its aim was to explore the issues of mobility, transition and access to work in Lyon and in France, while working towards co-operation between European countries to improve employment opportunities for people with visual impairments.

Former RNC student Ben Rendle who successfully completed an apprenticeship and is now a trainee technical support advisor, said: "I was fortunate to see a technical support apprenticeship advertised with Dolphin when I left RNC in 2013.

When I started work I was given specific training on using Dolphin’s computer based systems with a screen reader; this enabled me to do the same job as everyone else.”

RNC tutor Claire Lewin added: "We learnt so much during our visit, not just about the great work that Dolphin does in developing assistive technology, but also about its culture of inclusion.

"Dolphin has encouraged our students to think about how they manage their visual impairment on a day-to-day basis with a view to being as independent and fulfilled as possible.”