Abstract/Summary

For several years, there has been little research on how deaf people have managed at their workplace, where their success in terms of career progression (or lack of) might depend on the qualifications they will have achieved prior to entering their workplace. Considering challenges at work, this study focused on those deaf people who work in a predominantly hearing environment where the deaf person would often be the sole deaf staff in the whole company to investigate the impact on his self-esteem. 146 participants filled in the questionnaires and completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem, Hearing Impairment and Self-Esteem at Work scales. 10 participants were selected purposively for in depth interviews looking at their life histories. Applying thematic analysis within the mixed methodology approach, themes emerged such as resilience which is key to managing in the challenging workplace environment, good command of English language is also critical to maintaining confidence in terms of career progression; those with better speech and perhaps wearing cochlear implants are more likely to have better self-esteem through better coping mechanisms. These findings also suggest that different levels of hearing loss, current age, school types which they attended, etc. does not influence the self-esteem scale. Having a Deaf Identity is irrelevant in terms of maintaining one’s self-esteem at work mainly because the work colleagues are typically hearing. This study thereby indicates that in the first instance having a strong command of English language regardless of schooling methods is key to a deaf person having good self-esteem within workplace. Developing resilience at an earlier age is an essential component of a young deaf person starting work.