Sign of Employment

Although Deaf people are cognitively able, they have traditionally faced major problems in the workplace. As well being typically under-employed, they experience discrimination and exclusion from workplace communication, decision-making and promotion. In this study, a review of recent work in this area was carried out and a number of focus groups of Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HOH) were organised. The results indicate that although the nature of Deaf employment has changed markedly in the last 20 years, Deaf people still lag in terms of managerial and professional employment. This is consistent with the range of experiences which Deaf people report which make daily employment life a struggle to maintain interaction. From the focus groups, we see a similar pattern where interaction is affected and Deaf people'€™s language rights are usually sidelined in the process of assessment of need and provision. Despite the advances of service provision, Deaf people still tend to be more pessimistic than hearing people in regard to most aspects of access. The research studies find few examples of good practice which are more than single isolated rewarding experiences. At present, policy is not creating an impact at the personal level and is not changing the working culture. Future developments need to focus on the analysis of workplace interaction, itself, looking at how Deaf people fit into working teams and seeking solutions for better inclusion.