When Waymo launches its driverless vehicle service in London — planned for 2026, subject to UK Government approval — it will not just change how blind and partially sighted people socialise or shop. It will change who can get to work. The ability to travel independently, spontaneously and without relying on another person is not a lifestyle perk. For the roughly 75 per cent of blind and partially sighted people of working age who are not in employment, the daily reality of getting to an interview, a workplace or a client site is one of the structural barriers that the employment gap too often obscures.
The journey to work is a barrier before work has even started
Consider what a job interview requires of a blind or partially sighted candidate before they have said a single word. They must plan a route to an unfamiliar address, often in a busy urban area. They must navigate a drop-off point, find the building entrance and arrive on time, calm and prepared. If a taxi driver refuses the journey because of a guide dog — which happens routinely and unlawfully — the entire plan collapses.
Robin Spinks, Head of Inclusive Design at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, rode in a Waymo vehicle ahead of its London launch. He described it as the realisation of a dream he had held for years:
My confidence grew very quickly when I could see the car negotiating, navigating a whole range of different situations and doing that really smoothly. It represents a new dawn in mobility, not just for those of us with vision loss, but for anybody.— Robin Spinks, Head of Inclusive Design, RNIB
A driverless car does not refuse a guide dog. It does not require a passenger to explain or justify their journey. For a jobseeker managing the stress of an interview, removing even one unpredictable human variable has real, practical value.
Independence in transit is a professional asset
Blind and partially sighted people in work, and those seeking work, bring tenacity, adaptability and problem-solving honed by navigating a world not designed for them. The ability to travel independently adds to that: it means being able to take a last-minute meeting, travel to a new site, or attend a training course without days of advance logistics.
This matters even more for roles that involve travel. For someone whose job takes them between sites or between clients, the freedom to move from one appointment to the next independently — without pre-booking assistance for every leg or depending on a colleague to drive — can be the difference between a role being genuinely practical and being quietly out of reach. As driverless services grow, a whole category of jobs that once seemed logistically impossible starts to open up.
Waymo’s app has been designed with accessibility in mind. A sound feature lets passengers locate the vehicle when it arrives rather than searching along the kerb — the kind of specific, practical design decision that makes a tool genuinely usable, not just technically available. Combined with apps such as Be My Eyes, which can help a user orient themselves at an unfamiliar drop-off point, the end-to-end journey becomes more manageable.
That matters enormously for jobseekers preparing for interviews — including choosing and wearing the right clothes, arriving at the right entrance and presenting with confidence. Seema Flower, Founder and Managing Director of Blind Ambition, is clear about what genuine independence means in that context:
Getting to a job interview is not just logistics — it is confidence. When you know you can get there independently, on your own terms, without owing anyone an explanation or a favour, you walk through that door differently. That is the kind of independence driverless cars can give blind and partially sighted people, and employers should understand what a difference it makes.— Seema Flower, Founder and Managing Director, Blind Ambition
What employers should understand about this shift
Access to Work already funds transport support for blind and partially sighted employees, covering taxis where public transport is not viable. Driverless vehicles do not replace that provision — and nor should they.
It helps to think of work journeys as a spectrum. When Seema travels to deliver training to a room of a hundred people, arriving on time, calm and refreshed is non-negotiable, and a trusted human driver who knows exactly where to set her down safely still has the edge. A routine daily commute to a familiar workplace is a very different journey. If someone is occasionally delayed and simply makes the time up elsewhere, the stakes are far lower — and that predictable, repeated, lower-pressure journey is precisely where independent, driverless travel can quietly transform a working life. Driverless transport does not replace human support; it extends the range of independent options, which means the old argument that “we cannot hire someone who cannot reliably get to work” becomes a great deal thinner.
Employers who are serious about recruiting blind and partially sighted talent should be thinking now about:
- Whether their workplace address is well-served by emerging autonomous vehicle routes
- How their building’s entrance, signage and reception process will work for someone arriving independently for the first time
- Whether their HR and hiring teams understand Access to Work well enough to discuss it confidently at interview stage
- Whether their induction process accounts for independent wayfinding to and around the site
These are not hypothetical questions. Waymo’s London testing is live. The technology is arriving, and the organisations that have thought through these practicalities will be the ones that successfully recruit and retain blind and partially sighted employees.
The employers most likely to get this right
There is a consistent pattern in disability-inclusive employment. The organisations that serve blind and partially sighted customers well — that train their staff to offer assistance confidently, that have accessible premises and genuinely usable digital tools — are the same organisations most likely to employ blind and partially sighted people effectively.
Customer inclusion and workforce inclusion are not separate programmes. They are the same institutional muscle. A business that has invested in behaviour-change training, that has moved from awareness to embedded practice in how its staff interact with blind and partially sighted people, is a business where a blind or partially sighted employee is more likely to thrive.
As driverless vehicles begin to remove one of the most visible logistical barriers to employment, the question for employers shifts. It is no longer “how would they get here?” It is “are we ready for them when they arrive?”
A barrier falling, day by day
None of this is fully available yet, and it will not be practical for every journey on day one. But the significant thing is that it is no longer just a concept. It is real, it is being tested on London’s roads, and it is coming. For a group of people who have faced structural barriers to employment for generations, that direction of travel is genuinely exciting. One of the most stubborn obstacles of all — simply, reliably and independently getting to and from work — is being chipped away, day by day.
For years, “how would you get here?” has quietly kept blind and partially sighted people out of jobs they were more than capable of doing. Technology like this does not fix everything overnight, but it shows the direction we are heading. Every barrier that falls is another person who gets to bring their talent to work.— Seema Flower, Founder and Managing Director, Blind Ambition
A practical note for jobseekers
If you are a blind or partially sighted jobseeker thinking about how autonomous vehicles might support your working life, it is worth knowing:
- Waymo is currently testing in London with safety operators on board; a public service launch is planned for 2026 subject to Government approval
- Access to Work continues to fund transport support now — you do not need to wait for driverless cars to claim support for getting to work
- Be My Eyes and similar apps can support you in navigating unfamiliar locations at the end of a journey
- If you are refused a taxi because of a guide dog, this is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 and can be reported
Greater independent mobility is coming. The employers and jobseekers who prepare for it now will be best placed to benefit.
