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«У слышащих больше возможностей для жизни»: проблемы среднего профессионального образования глухих и слабослышащих
The article is dedicated to the study of problems faced by deaf and hearing-impaired students in the process of vocational education. The analysis is based on the All-Russian survey of deaf and hearing-impaired students in colleges and vocational schools, conducted as face-to-face questionnaire, as well as 21 semi-formalized interviews with students and experts. The history of vocational education of people with hearing impairments in Russia has more than 200 years and today the strategy of obtaining secondary vocational education is the main one for young people with hearing impairments, and their career choice (application decision) is usually well thought out.
On the one hand, changes in the deaf and hearing impaired vocational training system in recent years (introducing inclusive education system, expanding the list of available professions, etc.) open up new opportunities for people with hearing disabilities, and on the other hand, require revising the main approaches to work with this group, which entails the emergence of various problems, which are common for any transitional period. The main problem that students themselves are talking about is a narrow corridor of opportunities to choose a specialty, narrowed down in some cases artificially because of colleges’ wish to unite all deaf students in one direction, and also because of colleges unwillingness to work with the deaf. The problem is that informants have an administrative barrier and the need to obtain an individual program of rehabilitation or habilitation, which determines individual restrictions on admission to work. Informants also talk about low quality of school education, problems of certification in correctional educational institutions, the lack of sign language interpreters, as well as low level of training of teachers. However, informants associate the most serious difficulties with the lack of career perspectives and mechanisms for institutionalized support for the employment of deaf people through college or other organizations.