Conceptions of working life among employees with mild-moderate aided hearing impairment: A phenomenographic study

TLDR

The study aims to explore how employees with mild‑moderate aided hearing impairment conceive working life and to highlight the need for comprehensive aural rehabilitation services, including assistive devices, communication training, and stakeholder education. The authors conducted a descriptive phenomenographic study, interviewing and audio‑recording fifteen employees with mild‑moderate aided hearing impairment, then transcribing and analysing the data to identify conceptions of working life. Analysis revealed four key categories—daily work difficulties, communication strategies, workplace facilitators, and life impact—showing that hearing impairment produces extensive psychosocial consequences that interact with individual strategies and environmental supports.

Abstract

Objectives: The aim was to explore the conceptions of working life among employees with mild-moderate aided hearing impairment (HI). Design: This study has a descriptive design, in which data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The text was analysed in accordance with the phenomenographic approach. Study sample: Fifteen participants with mild-moderate aided HI were recruited to the current study. Results: The analysis of the interviews resulted in four main categories describing the participants' conceptions of working life: (1) diffiiculties in daily work, (2) communication strategies, (3) facilitating factors in work environment, and (4) impact on daily life. The four identified descriptive categories show that the effects of HI on the lives of working adults generate far-reaching psychosocial consequences for the individual. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that difficulties and impact of having a HI interact with strategies used by the individual and contextual facilitators made in the work environment. We argue that there is a need for extensive services in aural rehabilitation for this population. This includes identifying the need of assistive listening devices, teaching the individual with HI about communication strategies and informing stakeholders about the consequence of having a HI.