BACKGROUND

The Deaf Community in Hong Kong

A statistical report was published by the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong in 2013. The territory-wide survey presented the demographic and socio-economic profiles of persons with disabilities and chronic diseases. According to Report No. 62, the number of people with hearing difficulty drastically increased from 92200 in 2007 to 155200 in 2013. 98800 people had more than one type of disability with a prevalence rate of 2.2%. Among this group of people with hearing disability, 4300 persons were profoundly deaf, which constitutes 2.8% of the population with hearing difficulty. There are only 3900 persons (2.5% of all persons with hearing difficulty) who had learnt sign language.

Educational attainment

The percentage of persons with hearing difficulty who have received no schooling or pre-primary level of schooling is 28.4%, three times the figure for the total population in Hong Kong (8.9%). While the majority of the total population in Hong Kong received education up to secondary/sixth form level, 39.1% of persons with hearing difficulty receive primary level of education only. From the data, it could be seen that persons with hearing difficulty are less likely to attain post-secondary education. Of these, the percentage attaining a non-degree is 2.3% and the percentage of getting a degree is 3.8%; on the other hand, the percentage of the total population attaining post-secondary education is 6.9% and 18.6% respectively. This data clearly indicates that the percentage of persons with hearing difficulty attaining higher education (secondary and tertiary) is lower than that of the total population.

Socio-economic status

According to the report, 47.2% of persons of hearing difficulty aged 18-64 are economically inactive, in comparison to the total population of economically inactive citizens aged 18-64 which is 26.3%. The percentage of the economically inactive population with hearing difficulty is 20% more than the total population of the economically inactive in Hong Kong. One possible assumption could be that an individual with hearing difficulty finds it significantly more difficult to join the job market and thus give up and stay economically inactive. Nevertheless, there would still be various causes and reasons behind those who are economically inactive which we are unable to find out in this paper.

39.2% of employed persons with hearing disability in the workforce are engaged in elementary occupations, which require relatively low academic qualifications. Only 20.4% of persons with hearing disability serve as managers and administrators, professionals and associate professionals, compared to 37.3% in the total population. As mentioned, the majority of persons with hearing difficulty have lower education attainment. The above data could possibly derive the potential linkage of educational attainment and the selection of occupation.

Lastly, according to the data, the median monthly employment earnings of persons with hearing difficulty is HK$10,000, HK$3,000 lower than that of the overall employed population. This wage disparity is reflective of the data above which indicates that there is a greater percentage of persons with hearing difficulty engaged in elementary occupations and thus receive a lesser wage. However, this could also suggest that there is some form of discrimination occurring towards the Deaf community.

(as cited from Census and Statistics Department, 2014)