Hard of Hearing Adults’ Interpersonal Interactions and Relationships in Daily Life
Abstract
:1. Introduction
Social Relationships and Communication
- How do HH adults experience social interactions in higher education and at work?
- How do HH adults experience social relationships in their leisure time?
- What opportunities and challenges do ICT and AT present to HH people in their daily life?
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Procedure
2.3. Analysis
2.4. Ethics
2.5. Credibility and Transferability
3. Results
3.1. Obstacles that Hinder Social Relationships in Education and at Work
3.1.1. Group Discussion as a Barrier for Social Interaction in Higher Education
3.1.2. Communication Barriers Lead to Feelings of Exclusion at Work
“I had a work colleague a few years ago who reacted so strongly because I was HH. She joked that I could not hear, and she said I should adjust my hearing aids, that I should change the batteries. It really hurt my feelings.”(9)
“I worked as a personal assistant before. And once I had to help the taxi driver with an address. And they love to talk, but I was in the back seat and couldn’t hear anything. And that was hard, and I had to quit that job because it makes me feel so bad.”(4)
3.2. The Importance of Having Social Relationships in Leisure Time
3.2.1. The Need for Friends and a Partner
3.2.2. Initiating and Maintaining Social Relationships with AT and ICT
“If I wanted to swim, then I had to take off my hearing aid when I bathed and so I became deaf... I could not hang out socially, not talk with anybody. So, it was either swim or hear”.(1)
“The first one I met on the Internet was HH and the other one could hear. I sent an email and immediately explained that I was hard of hearing and that we could communicate with each other anyway on our smartphones. We could write or communicate via sign language via webcams. And then, after a year, we met in real life too and got together and moved here.”(7)
4. Discussion
Limitations of the Study
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Informant | Age | Gender | Impairment | Occupation | Marital Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 27 | Male | HH/profound | Installation electrician | Common-law spouse |
2 | 28 | Male | HH/severe | Confectioner | Single |
3 | 30 | Female | HH/profound | Enrolled nurse | Married |
4 | 26 | Female | HH/profound | Carpenter | Girlfriend |
5 | 27 | Male | HH/severe | Teacher | Common-law spouse |
6 | 30 | Male | HH/profound | Car salesman | Single |
7 | 31 | Male | HH/severe | Car salesman | Girlfriend |
8 | 26 | Female | HH/severe | Business assistant | Single |
9 | 26 | Male | HH/profound | University student | Common-law spouse |
10 | 24 | Male | HH/profound | Online salesman | Single |
11 | 30 | Female | HH/profound | Office assistant | Single |
12 | 26 | Female | HH/severe | Enrolled nurse | Boyfriend |
13 | 30 | Female | HH/severe | Business assistant | Common-law spouse |
14 | 31 | Male | HH/severe | Business assistant | Common-law spouse |
15 | 26 | Male | HH/profound | Enrolled nurse | Common-law spouse |
16 | 27 | Male | HH/profound | Student in municipal adult education | Single |
Themes | Categories |
---|---|
Obstacles that hinder social relationships in education and at work | Group discussion as a barrier for social interaction in higher education |
Communication barriers lead to exclusive feelings at work | |
The importance of having social relationships in leisure time | The need for friends and a partner |
Initiating and maintaining social relationships with the help of AT and ICT |
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Olsson, S.; Dag, M.; Kullberg, C. Hard of Hearing Adults’ Interpersonal Interactions and Relationships in Daily Life. Disabilities 2021, 1, 71-88. https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities1020007
Olsson S, Dag M, Kullberg C. Hard of Hearing Adults’ Interpersonal Interactions and Relationships in Daily Life. Disabilities. 2021; 1(2):71-88. https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities1020007
Chicago/Turabian StyleOlsson, Sylvia, Munir Dag, and Christian Kullberg. 2021. "Hard of Hearing Adults’ Interpersonal Interactions and Relationships in Daily Life" Disabilities 1, no. 2: 71-88. https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities1020007