A Vision for Employing Deaf Individuals (as Teaching Assistants) in Educational Classrooms to Reduce Their Unemployment

Persons with disabilities in general suffer from limited job opportunities. Anyone tracking the employment movement of the deaf—as a category of disability, and especially deaf women—finds that there is a severe shortage in employers' inclination to hire them. This may result from the discrimination the deaf person experiences because of being deaf, weaknesses in the capabilities and skills of some of them, or their weak potential to compete in various professional fields.

The World Health Organization indicated that 360 million people in the world (328 million adults and 32 million children) suffered from hearing loss in 2017.

The unemployment rate for the Saudi population aged 15 and older for the second quarter of 2017 is estimated at (12.8) of the total Saudi population (31,472,308). This is an indicator of the high unemployment rate in general for everyone, so what about unemployment among persons with disabilities?! Looking at the reality of employment for persons with disabilities in our Arab world, we notice that the vast majority of persons with disabilities suffer from unemployment for various reasons. From what was published by the General Authority for Statistics in the demographic survey of persons with disabilities, the following becomes clear:

Survey of persons with a single disability: Males: 1. 40.8% employed for wages 2. 6.1% looking for work and have never worked 3. 4.4% looking for work and have previously worked 4. 0.6% working without wages 5. Students 8.2% Females:
1. 8% employed for wages 2. 5% looking for work and have never worked 3. 0.2% looking for work and have previously worked 4. 0.2% working without wages 5. Students 10.4%
This confirms the presence of many obstacles facing the rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities, the most important of which are the following:

• 
  Employers' lack of conviction regarding the abilities of persons with disabilities, and viewing them as incapable of being productive like others
• Negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities (not accepting them as members who have the same rights)
• Some individuals with disabilities needing necessary modifications in the work environment

Looking at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we find that the Convention dedicated Article (27) to aspects related to work and employment. We can infer from the Convention the areas of employment for the deaf in society, which are as follows:

Areas of employment for the deaf in society:

• Public sector (governmental) employee
• Private sector employee
• A specialised profession in the labour market
• Trainer
• Teacher / Teaching assistant

In implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities regarding their right to work, and the 43rd Arab Deaf Week, which was held under the slogan "Employing the Deaf in Society to Reduce Their Unemployment," we put forward a vision of the possibility of employing deaf individuals (as teaching assistants) in educational classrooms. We can create approximately 1,177 jobs for deaf boys and girls, resulting from the total number of Al-Amal institutes and hearing impairment inclusion programmes (deaf – hard of hearing – cochlear implant recipients), and it could be more than that if more than one deaf teaching assistant is employed in a single institute or programme.

Who is the teaching assistant?Who Is Teacher Assistant?

The job of (teaching assistant) is considered one of the pillars upon which the educational process relies in several countries, especially Britain and America, starting from the early stages in kindergarten and basic education, up to the secondary stage, and its importance increases with students with disabilities.

The terms for (teaching assistant) vary to include (paraprofessional, education assistant/or classroom assistant, teacher's aide, educational/instructional assistant). We can point out that the historical emergence of the term in the West was during the seventeenth century at Harvard University, to help academically lagging students.

The term (teaching assistant) refers to the status related to education in the school. The person is generally responsible for providing special or focused assistance to students and is called a teaching assistant (TA). It may include supervising students outside their classrooms, and according to regulations indicated by some studies, teachers are permitted to delegate some of their duties to their teaching assistants.

In this article, we dedicate the eligibility of employing (deaf) individuals as teaching assistants in institutes and programmes for hearing impairment. We can define the (deaf) teaching assistant here as a deaf teacher who is appointed to carry out teaching tasks in cooperation with the regular classroom teacher (general education teacher) and accompanies them in the regular classroom to work on raising the achievement level of deaf and hard-of-hearing students of different levels.

The (teaching assistant) provides many important services to both the student and the teacher that help raise the efficiency of the educational process. Their primary role lies in dealing with a number of students in small groups who need support and assistance of some kind.

Why should the teaching assistant be (deaf)?

There are several reasons that confirm the importance of having a deaf teaching assistant in educational classrooms, including:

• The need of deaf and hard-of-hearing students for the support of a (deaf teacher) when receiving their education at the hands of general education teachers in order to support them in learning
• Raising the level of their academic performance.
• Acting as a channel for conveying information
• An increase in classroom belonging
• The ability to convey the content and its underlying meaning to the deaf student
• Improving the inclusion process and promoting a positive view of inclusion
• Alignment of disability characteristics between the teaching assistant and the deaf student.
• The ability to provide deaf students with more experiences
• Their ability to process information
• A strong impact in delivering the message

There are also several justifications that confirm the need for a (deaf) teaching assistant, including:

First: A greater understanding of processes and procedures:

Students often learn procedures automatically without thinking, and accept work instructions uncritically. They also learn procedures without understanding the scientific principles on which they were built)

Because understanding processes and procedures requires a long time of practice and trial and error, as it is experiential learning; for example, solving mathematical problems, conducting experiments in science class, drawing maps in geography class...

Second: Understanding the context:

Current teaching methods do not place much emphasis on understanding the context or framework in which teaching takes place, because teachers provide information regardless of the factors influencing the context or framework that should be taken into account when interpreting the meanings of statements. They also teach them how to solve problems without clarifying how relevant these problems are to them, their community, or their practical lives.

Third: Transferring information:

Usually, information is transferred to the deaf student and remains in short-term memory; however, when the teaching assistant is deaf, they will transfer this information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and thus the brain retains it in an unforgettable manner.

Fourth: Reconstruction:

Reconstruction takes place in the process of (remembering) when the student forms a new meaning for knowledge, or modifies the meaning of old knowledge. In this process, the student attempts to rearrange facts, allowing room for delving deeper into facts and evaluating the new information that was added to their previous realistic understanding.

Fifth: Comparison

It lies in the processes of (sorting) similar ideas and placing them under appropriate headings, identifying logical similarity in diverse situations and contexts, and the possibility of extension: that is, expanding the current model or cognitive structure.

Sixth: Teaching them how to learn:

Learning processes are complex and go through higher stages of thinking, so the deaf person will be someone capable of teaching students this skill.

Seventh: Ensuring greater focus of attention:

There is a strong relationship between academic achievement and focus of attention; therefore, the deaf assistant uses diverse methods to sustain attention focus.

Eighth: Promoting deaf culture.

The teaching assistant performs several important roles under the supervision of the primary teacher:

• Providing educational support to students, and acting as a link between teacher and student
• Participating in lesson planning
• Assisting in classroom management
• Preparing the educational technologies used in the lesson
• Conducting diagnostic and evaluative tests
• Organising the educational process in the classroom
• Using methods and strategies that suit the students
• Preparing appropriate educational aids for the lesson

There are also other roles identified by the Special Education Organizational Guide of the Ministry of Education (1437 AH) in general as tasks for the teaching assistant, as follows:

• Preparing some classroom tools and supervising audiovisual and other equipment
• Assisting students in education and learning
• Following up with students under the teacher's supervision
• Contributing to organising and implementing group activities
• Assisting in preparing and implementing daily team collaborative work and student activities
• Assisting in classroom discipline and supervising students outside the school
• Assisting in managing services, resources, and equipment, including assistive technology devices necessary for providing services

It is important that certain standards are met by the teaching assistant to be effective in educational classrooms, which lie in achieving the following standards:

• Philosophical, historical, and legal knowledge of education for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Knowledge of the characteristics of deaf and hard-of-hearing learners
• Knowledge of planning educational programmes and curricula for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Knowledge of instruction and its skills, practices, and procedures for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Knowledge of classroom management and discipline
• Knowledge of ethical issues and practices

References:

Ministry of Education (1436). Special Education Organizational Guide. General Directorate of Special Education.

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.