or motivation for independence" (Zunker, 2002, p. 381). For example, one study found evidence of marked ambivalence and anxiety--as well as excitement and hope--in the families of deaf children who had been given cochlear implants (Allegretti, 2001). The study cautions professional practitioners to provide education to the family as part of their care for the patient.
There is evidence of some good news where the careers of persons with disabilities, including hearing impairment, are concerned. According to Skoog and Toppino (1999), over the course of the 1990s the employment prospects for disabled persons improved dramatically. They cite the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which tracks employment patterns of both the nondisabled and persons with disabilities over three-year periods. Persons with hearing impairment are eligible for participation in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which provides financial, educational, and training assistance that may be administered as VR services. However, not all participants take advantage of or have access to education and training under SSI or any other VR program (Hasnain, et al., 2003). Furthermore, currently 56% of all participants are taken out of eligibility when they reach 18 years of age, by reason of "an assumption of employability for those young adults recommended for cessation" (Berry, et al., 2000, p. 164). Adult eligibility for SSI is determined by an evaluation that participants are unable to work, but the weight of evaluation in the current period appears to be on the side of a presumption that the affected individual will enter the work force. Accordingly, vocational-rehabilitation/transitioning services surface as a major concern; effective career-counseling practices are strongly implicated, given the limitations that hearing impairment places on long-term career prospects of young people.
Among employers who have hired voc...