Deaf Employment in the Professional Sector
Autor: Amber Kiker • May 5, 2016 • Research Paper • 3,996 Words (16 Pages) • 920 Views
Amber Kiker Kiker 1
Professor McCarthy
English 102
August 12, 2015
Deaf Employment in the Professional Sector
Profound hearing loss affects millions of people in the United States today. According to the Gualledette Research Institute there are currently over a million people between the ages of 6 and 65 who are Deaf (Harrington 1). While several state and federally funded programs have been implemented to support early and post-secondary education for the Deaf, evidence points to a significant lack of job placement assistance for Deaf young adults transitioning from college to independent living. Deaf graduates often return home to live with family due to an inability to obtain employment reflective of their academic achievements. Currently in America the most common type of employment held by Deaf individuals is limited primarily to the service and manufacturing industries. The objective of this research is to investigate the professional sector of employment in the United States to uncover the driving mechanisms behind the non-presence of the Deaf Community, specifically those with post-secondary education, and to examine what steps are being taken to resolve this apparent disparity.
In the hearing world, graduating from college is the beginning of an exciting chapter of a young adult’s life as it represents the transition from higher education into the world of professional employment. It is the time one gets to put into practice the skills they have honed through years of preparation in the educational system. For people who are Deaf, entering this phase of real world employment as a linguistic minority, the harsh realities of
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employment discrimination appear immediately. People who are Deaf still struggle to be accepted and accommodated in the workplace. In her doctoral dissertation, Sue Ellen Pressman points out that Deaf persons are often unable to convert their educational accomplishments into an equivalent job status. If they do reach the professional sector they are most commonly limited to employment in a Deaf related field, such as Deaf education administration. She states that opportunities are beginning to open up in technology and mathematics, but legal, medical and dental have little representation (1).
Communication plays a major role in the struggle for Deaf employment. The strained style of communication intrinsically necessary between the hearing and the Deaf is the primary obstacle in a company’s decision to employ a Deaf person. The belief that any person cannot perform the function of their job due to their style of communication is a form of discrimination known in the Deaf community as Audism. Tom Humphries first coined this term while writing his doctoral dissertation entitled “Communicating Across Cultures (Deaf-Hearing) and Language Learning”. He states:
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