Analytical report on survey findings

Overview

This report presents analysis and results of the surveys that have been conducted among three target groups of the ACPD (Access ro Caretaking Professions for the Deaf) project:
– potential trainees and employees (the deaf and hard of hearing),
– potential trainers (educational institutions) and
– potential employers (medical and caretaking institutions).
The surveys aimed to explore the interest of the target groups in the cooperation, which should lead into the better employability of the deaf and hard of hearing people, providing them secure working places in nursing and caretaking as one of the ways to cover the shortage of professionals in the medical and elderly care sectors.

Scope

This report focused on surveys, conducted during the lifetime of the project implementation (September 2019 – April 2021) among respondents of the project countries (Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria).
The information about the survey was disseminated via Newsletters and social media channels in order to reach the target group in many countries. On advice of the project partner Listen Up Foundation the survey was designed on a combination of questions in video (in ISL) and text form as well as short answers in text form. The videos were created by the Listen Up Foundation. The text parts have been translated into the national languages by the project partners. The internet plattform QuestionPro has been selected due to the possibility to add the videos to the questionnaire, which was essential for the survey of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHOH) as a supporting language.
To guarantee data security, not every question of the survey was obligatory, in order to give a possibility to organisations and respondents to stay anonymous.

Methodology

The online survey as the tool for systematic gathering of data from the target audience characterized by the invitation of the respondents and the completion of the questionnaire has been conducted by the consortium. The questionnaires were elaborated in all partner languages and International Sign Language (ISL) in order to reach out for national stakeholders and representatives of the deaf community.
This report uses the data collected via surveys on EU Survey (https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/) and QuestionPro (https://www.questionpro.com/).

Since online surveys can be filled out from anywhere in the world, we speak not about the geographical location of the respondents, but about the language of the survey they filled out in the results of the surveys.

Findings

1. The surveys were filled out mostly by HOH people (%), who stated themselves as bilingual (writing and sign language). It may indicate the lacking accessibility of the survey for the profoundly deaf people.
2. 100% of the respondents are convinced that there are barriers which limit the educational opportunities of DHOH.
3. Lacking access to the educational programs through the missing support of the sign language interpreters is the most crucial problem for the VET-training of DHOH.
4. The International Sign Language can not be used as the universal language to reach all of DHOH in the project countries, as the sign languages can differ from each other significantly. For example, whereas DHOH in Germany understand ISL quite well, DHOH in Lithuania mostly do not understand ISL at all.
5. The respondents named better accessibility support as a main measure to overcome those barriers.
6. Noone of the respondent feels integrated to the study process without any special conditions.
7. All respondents are sure that the need of DHOH students to have a licensed sign language interpreter to facilitate understanding of the information is extremely high.
8. Most of the respondents are also convinced that the lecturers in the learning process with the deaf and hard of hearing people have to know sign language and be competent in the special evaluation methods.
9. To the question on the readiness of the current education system to educate DHOH students in the same classes with the hearing ones, all respondents answered that the system is either rather no or absolutely not ready for that.

Conclusion

Due to the insufficient number of respondents the surveys can only be partly taken into account as representative for the target groups of educational institutions as well as for DHOH .

• The potential employers see the biggest problem of the employment of DHOH in nursing/caretaking in the communication between them and the colleagues or patients which is a crucial part of the medical care.
• DHOH community sees the inclusion into the society in the adaptation of the working environment including the use of at least the basics of sign language.
• The educational system is not ready to teach DHOH students with the hearing ones.
• At the same time the motivation and interest of the DHOH on the nursing or caretaking professions is quite low (only a few applicants for the job or training on nursing/caretaking).
• The state financial support for the employers in Germany leads to the higher employment rate of the PWDs including DHOH . In the countries, where such support is not given, the employers see no possibility to hire DHOH.
• The educational institution can not customize the learning program according to the needs of the labor market because it does not depend on the educational institution.