SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS OF THE DEAF
So far, then, as appears from the findings of the United States census, the deaf are seen to be distributed among the chief industries very generally, and in very many of what are known as "trades" they are able to be profitably employed. In some activities of life deafness is of course an effectual barrier, but these are rather restricted ones. There is but one great division of employment in which the deaf cannot enter extensively, namely, commercial and mercantile pursuits. With these exceptions, the deaf are found to be industrially occupied like the rest of the community, and to be able to engage, and actually engaging, in most of the employments of men.[96]
In respect to the general economic status of the deaf, a second source of information, at the bottom of the scale, as it were, is to be found in the proportion of the deaf cared for in public alms-houses. Though a much greater proportion of the deaf are discovered here than of the general population, the deaf do not on the whole constitute a large part of the alms-house population of the country. In 1910 the census reported 540 deaf-mutes to be in alms-houses, or six-tenths of one per cent of all their inmates.[97] That is to say, a little over one per cent (1.2) of the total number of the deaf in the United States are found to-day in alms-houses.[98]
Such is the evidence we have in respect to the economic standing of the deaf. Yet the fact that the deaf are usually found capable of taking care of themselves should not be, after all, a matter either of doubt or of wonder. They are for the most part, as we have indicated, quite "able-bodied," and but for their want of hearing are perfectly normal in respect to "doing a job." If they are skillful and efficient, their deafness proves comparatively little of a drawback. Another contributing cause in the situation lies in the fact that most of the deaf have attended the special schools provided for them, where industrial preparation with the opportunity to learn a trade is offered and largely availed of.[99] When they go out into the world, they may be supposed to have an industrial equipment, which, besides taking in view their handicap, is one in many respects fully equal to that of their hearing fellow-laborers; and though many of the deaf, apparently the greater number, do not follow the trade learned at school, yet there is no doubt that the training and lessons in industry there acquired prove of decided practical advantage.[100]
Views of the Deaf as to their Economic Standing
To what extent the deaf hold themselves able to stand alongside the general population may well be indicated by what they themselves have to say. Of the adult deaf who have had schooling, it is claimed that eighty-one per cent are gainfully employed;[101] and that of the adult male deaf ninety per cent are self-supporting.[102] A large proportion are said to be the heads of families and the possessors of homes.[103] In respect to the conditions of their employment, including that of wages, they are usually ready to declare that they are little different from those of the general population, sometimes taking pains to point out the substantial equality of the two.[104]
The views of the deaf in the whole matter of their industrial footing may be expressed as summed up in the following resolutions, which were reported by a special committee on industrial conditions of the deaf at the convention of the National Association of the Deaf in 1904:[105]
1. There are few ordinary occupations in which the deaf do not or cannot engage.