Access to employment for deaf graduates, employees and job seeking signers: Findings from the DESIGNS project

Employment represents a central component in most adults’ lives, providing economic security and social stability, and satisfying psychological needs (Blustein, 2008). Deaf people face structural challenges when accessing and maintaining employment when compared to their hearing counterparts, as well as large gaps in earnings (e.g. Walter et al, 2013). There has been limited research on the experiences of deaf job-seekers, employees, and sign language interpreters, and there have been few if any evidence-based resources that can address or mitigate these challenges. The Erasmus+ funded DESIGNS project (2016-2019) used an action research approach to explore the situation of deaf graduates183 who are employees or jobseekers as well as employers and sign language interpreters, to inform and produce training materials for these stakeholder groups in Ireland, Germany and the UK. The overall aims of DESIGNS were to create evidence-based resources for Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and to share exemplar practices from across Europe to facilitate greater participation of deaf signers in employment; encourage employers to understand and to accomodate the needs of deaf employees; and provide employment-context training to sign language interpreters. The project team included seven organisations and institutions from four European countries who contributed their expertise in the fields of education and training, employment, sign language interpreting and deaf community advocacy. This chapter presents a summary of the study including its background, methodology, and findings