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This article examines the participation of non-sighted people in the professional world through the lens of medical, social and production-related models of disability. The central idea here is these models emerge as a product of social and legal conventions. At the same time, state policies are defined by these models, which also affect the (self-)perception of the non-sighted. Based on a qualitative analysis of more than twenty interviews with non-sighted people, I show that attitudes towards this 'group' today are heavily influenced by a paternalistic medical model of disability that constructs the image of a non-sighted person as a sick individual in need of rest that should be encouraged to 'stay at home'. Private businesses rarely see any economic benefit in hiring 'the disabled', preferring either to pay state fines or use fake employment scams. The range of extremely narrow legitimate professional options on offer to …