Specific problems of deaf people

1. Specificproblemsof deaf people

2. Specificproblems • Atschool • Atwork • In the society

3. In mainland France Deaf people in France • 5,182,000 people sufferfromhearing handicap. • 3,449,300 affected by minor to medium impairment • 1,429,800 are affected by medium to severeimpairment • 303,000 sufferfromdeep to total hearingdeficiency. Source : Drees, HID inquiry

4. Manifold handicaps • 4 out of 5 personswithhearingimpairmentalsosufferfrom one or more otherdeficiencies, more frequently a motor handicap (44 %) • Prevalence of hearingimpairmentisalmosttwicehigheramong people in nursing home than for people in regularhousing. • Nonetheless, 95 % of people withhearingimpairment live in regularhousing.

5. Lowprofessional qualification • These handicaps cause specificproblems in the course of education. • People withhearingdeficiencycompletetheireducationwith a lowerlevel of qualification than the average population

6. More difficulty to getemployed • Proportion of working people withhearingdeficiencybetween 20 and 59 isslightlylowerthan in general population of sameage (67% in front of 73%). • Proportion of inactive among people withhearingdeficiencyishigher (15% in front of 3%). • Proportion of working people withhearingdeficiencygetslower in accordance with the level of hearingimpairment. Source : étude CEE Connaissance de l’emploi n°66

7. Hindrance to work and working conditions affected by prejudices • According to persons inquired by the British institution RNID, • job research remain a difficult stage (86%) • and a long one, longer than 1 year for 57% of them (which is only the case for 20% of non-deaf people); • According to these persons, the attitude of the potential recruiter represent the main obstacle to their hiring (70%); • Their deafness would cause their exclusion from certain positions (59%); • or is supposed to be the cause for their non-hiring (23%) after a job interview; • All the more so than they notice, among hiring intermediates as well as recruiters, a lack of information and consciousness towards their needs (68%); • as well as a disregarding of the tools needed to communicate with them (52%); • 74 % of the interviewed persons believe they have lesser possibilities for promotion than their non-deaf colleagues, or that they will be restrained in their careers. A study by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID).

8. Lack of understanding from the people around • According to them, deafness raise doubts about the person's ability to possess skills or to take responsibilities, because it is too often associated to depreciatory representations about them : lesser productivity, insurmountable communication problems, financial additional costs, overwork for colleagues. • These representations have for a long time restricted deaf people to certain trades (printing works or accountancy) or oriented them towards apprenticeships without real professional outlets.

9. A lot of attention and energy • Mobilizing a lot of energy and attention to get adapted to their position, to get the needed information, to compensate for the oral discussions and to realize their tasks, the persons with hearing impairment and the deaf persons feel that such efforts are one-sided. • Efforts which moreover subject them to stronger pressure and stress than for non-deaf persons, which have repercussions on their health condition. • As a matter of fact, the study of the Danish institute for social research shows that their health condition may deteriorate in a larger fashion than for other workers : 47% of them declare suffering from mental tiredness (versus 36% for non-deaf persons), and 51% from physical tiredness (versus 31%).

10. Isolatedpersons • For the adult, the difficulties of communication with people aroundreverberate on professional life and on relations with society and family. Whengrowing in age, the insidious and slow progress of the deficiencycanlead to severe isolation in relationships, worsened in a context of manifold pathologies and resignationrelated to ageing.

11. Less couple living • The hearingdeficienyreverberate on affective and relational life. Thus, among people in theirtwenties and over, thesewho are affected by deep to total deafness are relativelyless to declare « living in couple or having a boy/girl-friend or a partner », than the general population (58% versus 77%, withsameage and gender structure). This situation touches at a lesserdegree people with medium to severehearingdeficiency.

12. Relational isolation • Personswithdeep to total hearingdeficiency are almosttwice as much as the general population to declare « not havingfrequent contacts withtheirown close family as well as withtheirbroadfamily or other relations » (49% versus 26%). Such inter-personal isolation touches to a lesserextent people with medium to severeimpairment.

13. Isolatedwomen • But whentakenintoaccount the effects of age, of social position and of associateddeficiencies, the severity of the hearingdeficiencyappears as linked to an increasement of the risk of relational isolation, amongwomenonly. « All thingsbeingequal », womenwith a deep to total hearingimpairment are subjected to a higherrisk of relational isolation thanthesewho are not affected by a hearingdeficiency. This risk factor isincreasedtwofold for persons in regularhousing and to a multiplication factor of 1,4 in specialised institutions. • On the otherside, hearingdeficient men do not know anyhigherrisk of relational isolation thanpersonswithouthearingdeficiency.

14. Thankyou