The effect of education on the occupational status of deaf and hard of hearing 26-to-64-year-olds.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, federal legislation sought to eliminate disability-based discrimination by requiring reasonable accommodations in school and the workplace. One result of this legislation has been increased access to U.S. colleges and universities by deaf and hard of hearing persons. The present article reviews the literature on employment of persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and reports results of a recent analysis that used the 2010 American Community Survey (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010a). It was found that significant gains in college attendance and graduation occurred during the period, with individuals who attained a college degree realizing increased employment and earnings relative to individuals who had not graduated. It was also found that college graduation helps reduce the gap between the earnings of deaf persons with a college degree and those of comparably educated hearing persons.

Effect of postsecondary education on the economic status of persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.

This article examines the effect that postsecondary education has on earnings and the duration of time spent in the Social Security disability programs for young persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. Our hypothesis is that investments in postsecondary training increase the likelihood of employment for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and thus reduce dependency on disability-related income support programs. A longitudinal data set based upon records from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Social Security administrative records is used for this analysis. We find that those who graduate, even those who graduate with vocational degrees, experience significant earnings benefits and reductions in the duration of time spent on federal disability programs when compared with those who do not graduate with a degree. This finding suggests that reductions in the duration of time spent on Social Security programs are not limited to those with the highest level of scholastic aptitude and that investments in post-secondary education can benefit a broad group of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons. In addition, the data show that individuals who attend college, but withdraw before graduation, fair no better economically than individuals who never attended college.

Evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate alternative methods for evaluating deaf students' readiness to meet the English language and literacy demands of postsecondary educational programs. In the first part of the study, scores obtained by a large sample of deaf students on the ACT Assessment (ACT Composite score and scores on the ACT English and Reading tests) were compared to their scores on various measures of English language and literacy skills. In the second part of the study, the performance of a smaller sample of deaf students on the ESL Reading and ESL Grammar/Usage components of COMPASS/ESL was compared to their performance on a set of concurrent measures of English skills. The results of this investigation demonstrate that neither the ACT Assessment nor COMPASS/ESL are appropriate for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary educational programs. However, the ACT Assessment is appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to transferable (BS and AAS) degree programs, and the ESL Reading and Grammar/Usage tests appear to be appropriate for deaf students seeking admission to nontransferable (AOS) degree programs. Taken together, the combination of the ACT Assessment and COMPASS/ESL appear able to provide a valid, reliable, and coherent approach to admissions screening assessment for the full range of deaf students seeking admission to postsecondary programs.