Little is known about the deaf as a group. Most of the studies
that have been done concerning their problem have been about the medical,
educational and psychological aspects of their disability with very little
emphasis on their vocational and social problems and needs.
The study began from two basic hypotheses: first, that there is
a correlation between deafness and unemployment status, with a disproportionate
number of the deaf being found in low status, low paying jobs, and
secondly, that the deaf in British Columbia at the present time, are
receiving a limited amount of services.
The particular focus of the study was the problems and experience
of a sample of young deaf adolescents and adults in training for, finding
and holding jobs. The sample group chosen was the total group of graduates
and school leavers from the Jericho Hill School for the Deaf, Vancouver,
British Columbia, a residential School which takes pupils from all socio-economic
levels, including day pupils, for the period July 1956-July 1965.
A schedule of research questions was devised which included
investigation of the following areas: (1) what vocational assessment,
counselling and placement services were available to and utilized by the
sample group (2) what jobs they obtained and how they obtained them
(3) what their attitudes were to their jobs and fellow workers (4) what
job aspirations they had and whether they attained them (5) what opinions
they had about the kinds of help they needed (6) what their intelligence
quotients were, as a crude index of their capabilities to cope with further
training and education.
A research design of a diagnostic descriptive type was next
devised, which comprised a number of steps, including (1) the interviewing
of experts in the field (2) the devising of a questionnaire to be sent
to the school graduates (3) the interviewing of a sample of respondents
willing to be interviewed (4) the relation of the insights and information
obtained, to the determining of what services should be recommended in order
to provide more adequate services for the deaf.
Of the total group of 78 school leavers, 38 responded to the
questionnaire of whom 14 were interviewed. Twenty-two of the 38 respondents
were employed. The major findings of the study were that; the employed deaf
in the sample group who have received no further education or training are
working in low paid, low status jobs, regardless of the level of their
intelligence or desires for further training. This is one-half of the total
sample group.
Of those who obtained vocational training including on-the-job
training, it would be true to say that this did improve their economic
status. However there is a tendency for this group to be frozen in bottom
level positions with few prospects of advancements. Of the small group
proceeding to advanced education at Gallaudet College, it is as yet too
soon to say what their vocational prospects will be.
An additional finding was that most job placement was done by
families, friends and Jericho Hill School, with very little by community
agencies. A lack of spacific services indispensable to the deaf, was
found, particularly in relation to use of interpreters.
A further finding was the "orality" of deaf people in the sample
interviewed as defined by ability to use speech in everyday living at a
level intelligible to strangers, was far below this standard, with one
exception. An additional finding was that the inability to achieve
a satisfactory level of orality appears to be related to feelings of
failure and inferiority in the deaf and to interfere to some extent with
the deaf person's concentration on the acquisition of written skills.
There was considerable evidence that social and recreational
activities play a specially important role in the lives of deaf people, and
may even determine the location of the jobs they seek. As many are unable
to enjoy an outlet for their frustrations and tensions by communicating
orally with their fellow workers, it is important to them to be with other
deaf people for some of their recreation, because with such a group they
are released from the constant strain of lip reading or writing everything
down.
In contrast to the findings of two American studies, there was
little, if any correlation found between such factors as type of job
obtained and lip reading ability and preferred methods of communication
used at work. Nor was there any correlation between these factors and
income obtained, job stability and attitudes to the job and to fellow
workers. Total or partial deafness, day or residential status did not
appear to affect any of the factors mentioned either positively or negatively.
This may have been due to the size of the sample group and two
other factors, first, that almost all the group became deaf before the
age when speech patterns are normally acquired, or were born deaf.
Secondly, the sample contained no respondents in the managerial, technical
or professional classes, and few in the craftsman class.
A number of specific recommendations were made. Some of these
pertained to the establishment of the necessary services, especially those
of assessment, counselling, placement and follow-up services. Some pertained
to an expansion of the roles of government and private agencies,
and some pertained to educational practices in the field of education for
the deaf. Special emphasis was placed on the improving of ways of determining
much earlier in the education of the deaf child than is currently
the practice the level of orality he is likely to reach, so that vocational
and educational plans for him can be adapted to his needs. A
further recommendation was that it is important to include in the educational
programmes for parents of deaf children, opportunities to meet with the
adult deaf. In the area of prevention, routine use of hearing tests for
the newborn was emphasized. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/42416 |
| Date | January 1966 |
| Creators | Jones, Clifford Stewart |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
Page generated in 0.0029 seconds