The sticking point in job applications for the vision-impaired often isn’t their qualifications. It’s the application process. Keep Left and Guide Dogs NSW/ACT devised a clever experiment to show how recruitment systems filter out qualified candidates who are blind or have low vision before a human ever reviews their application.

In Screened Out, talent acquisition expert, Matt, tries to fill out what looks like a standard job application, but with bugs that mirror vision impairments. Hitting inaccessible steps, automated filtering and rigid criteria, his frustration is palpable. Ultimately, he fails. The campaign makes businesses see – and feel – the barriers happening in real time.

The campaign builds on Guide Dogs’ Breaking Barriers research, commissioned from disability-led research organisation Knowable Me, which found that 76% of Australians with a disability are unable to finish job applications due to inaccessible online systems. 

Screened Out will run as a paid campaign across LinkedIn and Meta, supported by earned media, to encourage businesses to sign the Inclusive Employment Commitment to adopt more accessible and inclusive hiring practices. 

Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, campaigns and public affairs manager, Sarah Watts, stated, “We know from talking to jobseekers who are blind or have low vision that the barrier has never been their talent, it’s the process. Every inaccessible application step or screening tool that isn’t built for assistive technology, is a qualified candidate an employer never gets to meet. Screened Out helps expose the issue and asks businesses to take real, practical steps to fix it.”

Keep Left, head of creative, Johanna Murray, added, “Telling employers that recruitment systems exclude people is one thing. Having them feel it themselves is another. We wanted the audience to hit those same barriers in real time; the unnecessary form field and the filter that quietly disqualifies them, so the problem stops being abstract.”

Blair Kimber, executive creative director at Keep Left, commented, “The Breaking Barriers research told us exactly where the process breaks down for candidates who are blind or have low vision. We could have just repeated those numbers, but a figure gets nodded at and forgotten. So, we built the film around what that research describes: a job application, failing the same way it does for real candidates. Seeing that happen sticks in a way a statistic never will.”

Credits: 

Client: Guide Dogs NSW/ACT 
Campaigns and Public Affairs Manager: Sarah Watts 

Creative Agency: Keep Left 
Production Agency: SHERPA 
Director: Leigh Miller 
Creative Producer: Brooke McKay 
Executive Creative Director: Blair Kimber 
Creative Lead: Joe Winter 
Director of Photography: Pat Harris 
Camera Operator: Stu Anderson 
Hair & Makeup Artist: Pauline Demirjian 
Stylist: Taylor Janes 
Client Partner: Johanna Murray 
Senior Account Manager: Annabelle Sheridan