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Spencer Duckworth
English 1010
Paul Anderson
May 2, 2016

Exploratory Research Paper

Issue: Deaf Discrimination

Figure 1 graphic from the article What Would You Do If You Saw Someone Discriminate Against a Deaf Job
Applicant? by Andrew Paparella

Introduction
For my Exploratory Research Paper, I researched deaf discrimination. I looked in
to different examples of discrimination as well as an article on what they could do if they
felt they were discriminated against.
Background
Discrimination against deaf people has been happening ever since there have
been deaf people around. The discrimination has just come to the light in the last 50 or
so years because of civil rights movements. Although we dont see the discrimination
happen it is still there. The most prominent is in the work place with how business
owners wont hire interpreters for the deaf or even hire a deaf person even though they
are fully qualified to do the job.
My Sources: What Would You Do
The first source that I found was an article produced by Andrew Paparella on
ABC News. The article What Would You Do If You Saw Someone Discriminate Against
a Deaf Job Applicant? was published on Feb 2, 2011. I found this article when I
searched deaf job discrimination on Google and thought that this article would be a
reliable source and it described a real life situation. The Purpose of this article is to
inform the readers about what is happening to deaf people. This article is about two girls

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that go in to apply for a job but are told that the one applying wont be hired because
she is deaf. Now the full situation was fake, the deaf girl, her friend, and the manager
were all reading off a script. They wanted to see how people would react to clear and
blatant discrimination. The most surprising part of this article was when they said that
social workers that had overheard the conversation went up to the manager after and
told him that it wasnt appropriate to discriminate in public but to put a not fit on the
back of the application. Unfortunately, this example is not the only time that this type of
thing happens it happens to deaf people all the time. As I was reading this paper I
wanted to find more examples of discrimination against the deaf.
My Sources: Deaf Americans Still Struggle
As I searched of my next source I went to google and searched discrimination against
deaf and hard of hearing and came across the article Deaf Americans Still Struggle to
Find Acceptance by Frederick Reese. The article was published online at Mint Press
News on August 21, 2013. The authors purpose for writing this article is to point out
that people discriminate without realizing it. Although many people do not have an
objection to deafness, there are some that use it as an excuse not to involve or hire
someone. An interesting point brought up in the article was that the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was a major civil rights law but it still has not brought
equality. This article is important to my research because it gives examples of
discrimination as well as points out that we dont always mean to but it happens
because we see deafness as a disability and we dont want to have to deal with the
complications that come with it. As I searched for my next paper, I wanted to find one
that talked more about the ADA.

Figure 2 graphic from the article Deaf Americans Still Struggle to Find Acceptance by Frederick Reese

My Sources: The Fight for Equality

While searching for my third source on Google, I searched deaf discrimination
and found the article Deaf Discrimination: The Fight for Equality Continues by Lydia L.
Callis. She published this article on the Huffingtonpost on August 13, 2015 with the
purpose of influencing businesses to become aware of the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA). The author implies that businesses dont follow the ADA by giving equal

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opportunity to deaf people because the businesses dont want to provide services for
the deaf because it will cost them more money. I agree with the author when she points
out how the rights of the deaf people are taken away because they are not given equal
opportunity to express themselves. An example of this that I learned from this article
was that deaf people are more likely to be wrongfully arrested or receive an incorrect
diagnosis. As I read through this paper I wanted to know more about what you could do
if you were discriminated against at work.

My Sources: Job Discrimination

The fourth article was found by searching discrimination against deaf people in
the workplace on Google. The article is Job Discrimination Based on Deafness and
Hearing Impairments by Lisa Guerin. It was published on the Disability Secrets site
online. The author wrote this article so that those discriminated against knew that that
there were different steps they could take to help protect against future discrimination.
As you read this article you can recognize that the author wrote it to deaf people that
had been discriminated against and what they could do about it. This article goes
through different reasons on why you might want to contact a lawyer to help with the
discrimination as well as what consists as an undue hardship for a business that might
be hiring a deaf person. Although this is an informative article, I disagree with the way it
was written. One of the first things it says for you to do is contact a lawyer and then
suggest complaining to the Human Recourses Center. The wording makes it sound like
it will be frowned upon to complain to Human Recourses. Although I dont fully agree
with the article it did help me to understand the different options there are for you to
take. This s an important article because without options of what you can do about
discrimination, then nothing would get solved and the discrimination would keep
happening.

Conclusion
As I have researched for this paper I realized that the discrimination isnt as small
as you would think it would be. I know as I continue my life I will do my best not to
discriminate, not just deaf people but all people. If you discriminate against one group,
you are likely to do it against another group.

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Works Cited
Callis, Lydia L. "Deaf Discrimination: The Fight for Equality Continues." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Guerin, Lisa. Job Discrimination Based on Deafness and Hearing Impairments
Disability Secrets. Disability Secrets. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.
Paparella, Andrew. "What Would You Do If You Saw Someone Discriminate Against a
Deaf Job Applicant?" ABC News. ABC News Network, 02 Feb. 2011. Web. 20
Mar. 2016.
Reese, Frederick. "Deaf Americans Still Struggle To Find Acceptance." MintPress News.
N.p., 21 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.