Employment Barriers for Persons with Hearing Impairment in the Job Market: Employers' Perspectives

Abstract

This study investigated the employers' perspectives on the decent employment barriers faced by persons with hearing impairment in the job market. A survey questionnaire was developed based on literature review and the ILO model, which was validated by experts of the field and then pilot tested to determine its reliability. Data were collected from 81 employers using the snowball sampling technique. Average mean values of data related to employment barriers were calculated to rank order these to prioritize the barriers that need to be addressed most urgently. Ranking revealed that education and training, unavailability of technical support, financial support, poor implementation of quota system represent the sequence of the urgency of the barriers. Further, a onesample t-test was used to compare the mean of employment barriers with a 75% preset criterion value. The findings of the t-test showed that the mean value of all the barriers was significantly less than 75%. The study recommended that there is a great need to propose a policy that clearly focuses on decent employment for the PWHI.