The Relationship Between Computer-mediated Communication and the Employment of Deaf People

Job satisfaction results from a workplace meeting individual needs for income, belonging, and professional growth. Accordingly, core factors contributing to satisfaction vary across individuals and groups. Deaf people have traditionally located satisfying employment among enclaves of other deaf people working within the predominantly manufacturing oriented economy of the 20th Century. With the current shift toward more spatially distributed service industries in the 21 stcentury, there is little research on factors that contribute to job satisfaction among deaf people engaged in this new workforce. Operating from a theoretical perspective of worker/environment fit proposed by Alderfer, the exploratory correlational study investigated relationships linking the degree of hearing impairment, use of computer mediated communication (CMC), choice of employment sector, and level of job with job satisfaction. A web survey was used to gather 343 questionnaires from deaf workers; questionnaires included items related to degree of hearing impairment, demographics, use of specific CMC technologies in the workplace, and job satisfaction. The relationships linking individual differences, types of CMC to elements of job satisfaction were analyzed using stepwise multiple regressions. Results were used to document that email and video relay services specific to customers and supervisors were significant predictors of job satisfaction. The implications for social change include informing specific guidelines related to the education, and program needs to prepare deaf people to be competitive in securing satisfying employment in the 21st century