Employment of deaf people as influenced by potential employers' perceptions: pathological compared with sociocultural perspectives

Abstract

Two basic perspectives contrast how people perceive deafness: the pathological and sociocultural perspectives. The pathological perspective focuses on the medical issues related to hearing impairment. The sociocultural perspective views deafness as a cultural difference. This study investigated whether these perspectives influenced assessments of deaf job candidates in a mock hiring scenario. Undergraduates were given information supporting either the pathological or sociocultural perspectives. They later rated deaf and hearing job candidates who were presented as having identical qualifications. The hypothesis was not supported in this study; the experiment did not significantly alter the views of future prospective employers. Also, education about the deaf culture did not appear to have an impact on deaf and hearing relations.