Employers’ Intent to Hire People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired: A Test of the Theory of Planned Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in explaining employers’ hiring intentions of people who are blind or visually impaired (B/VI). Participants were 388 hiring managers who completed an online survey that included the four TPB construct measures (attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral control, and intent to hire). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine the suitability of the measurement model, and structural equation modeling was used to test the structural model. The proposed TPB structural model provided good data fit; attitudes about productivity, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control accounted for more than 61% of the variance in intent to hire people who are blind. Attitudes about productivity of a blind employee had the strongest relationship with intent to hire, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Rehabilitation professionals who work with B/VI individuals should educate employers about how this population can perform the employers’ jobs to improve attitudes about productivity. They should consider employers’ subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, which could be influenced by providing disability awareness presentations to company employees and maintaining a relationship with employers, thus enabling employers to have access to qualified applicants.