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Description
The purpose of this research study was to examine the support strategies and mechanisms that led to academic and personal success for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Historically, deaf or hard of hearing students have struggled to meet their personal or academic goals within postsecondary educational institutions. For example, individuals who have a hearing loss represent only 4.8% of the California community college campus student population. This study describes how deaf or hard of hearing individuals utilized effective support strategies to assist them with meeting their personal and/or academic life goals. It is important to understand the conceptual framework as it specifically relates to goal attainment for individuals with hearing loss in order to ensure that higher education institutions are providing the support needed to assist these individuals with meeting their personal, professional, and academic goals. This study utilizes the social capital theory as the framework to better understand those influences that led to personal or academic success for deaf or hard of hearing individuals who participated in this research. A grounded theory method of inquiry was conducted to analyze the data for this study. This research approach was selected to investigate learning outcomes for deaf or hard of hearing individuals who obtained gainful employment, completed a workforce training program, or a degree in higher education. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who are either deaf or hard of hearing who had attained personal or academic success as defined by the study criteria. Specifically, participants were purposefully selected based on being prelingually deaf or hard of hearing. Consideration was given to the following characteristics in an effort to obtain maximum variation in the study: race; ethnicity; gender; age; and communication modalities. Additional criteria for participation in the study included having either a unilateral/bilateral severe to profound hearing loss or a unilateral/bilateral moderate hearing loss, and the use of a primary communication modality which involved American Sign Language or another signed system, or the use of spoken English. Twelve themes emerged as a result of the data analysis, with 10 of these seen as significant factors that led to the participants reaching goal attainment. Based on the findings, recommendations for practices and program development were made for institutions of higher learning, and primary and secondary educational settings, to assist deaf or hard of hearing individuals with the attainment of communication access, and personal and academic success.
