Education, employment, and independent living of young adults who are deaf and hard of hearing

Am Ann Deaf. 2012 Summer;157(3):264-75. doi: 10.1353/aad.2012.1619.

Abstract

Little information is available on the education, employment, and independent living status of young deaf and hard of hearing adults who have transitioned from high school. The present article reports postsecondary outcomes of 46 young adults who had attended for at least 4 years a non-public agency school in the northwestern United States specializing in deaf education. School administrators had developed a specific philosophy and operationalized it in an academic and literacy-based curriculum incorporating a grammatically accurate signing system. The researchers found that most or all participants had finished high school, had earned a college degree, were employed, and were living independently. Findings are discussed in terms of the available literature and the study's contribution to a limited body of recent research on young postsecondary deaf and hard of hearing adults.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Data Collection*
  • Deafness / epidemiology*
  • Deafness / rehabilitation
  • Educational Status
  • Employment / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Independent Living / statistics & numerical data*
  • Male
  • Persons with Hearing Disabilities / rehabilitation
  • Persons with Hearing Disabilities / statistics & numerical data*
  • Young Adult