LABOR CAPACITY OF DEAF WORKERS ON THE WORKPLACE: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ATTITUDES OF DEAF WORKERS AND THEIR CO-WORKERS WITHOUT HEARING IMPAIRMENT

The aim of this paper is to determine the opinions of deaf workers on their labor capacity and the opinions of their hearing co-workers about the labor capacities of the deaf. The sample consisted of 247 respondents, of whom 127 were deaf and 120 were hearing workers. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were used in processing the results. Testing was performed by Wilks' Lambda, tested significance in discriminant analysis was done by F test, at the statistical significance of 0.01. It was found that the sub-sample of respondents had a statistically significant difference in views on claims regarding the exploitation of deaf workers by employers, the employment of deaf people in low-paid simple occupations, and the equally successful but insignificant productivity of deaf workers. The statistical differences found indicate that there are differences in the assessment of the labor capacity of deaf workers in the hearing work environment. Qualitative analysis found that hearing impairment and the subjective attitudes of colleagues without hearing impairment have the greatest impact on the assessment of the labor capacity of deaf workers.