Barriers and enablers to employment
The majority of research identified by this review focused on experiences of employment and barriers to inclusion.
While there is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the prevalence of such barriers or their impact on people’s career pathways and productivity, it is clear that there are a wide range of issues affecting the working lives of deaf people and people with hearing loss.
We identified a range of barriers facing people getting into and succeeding in work. In this section we discuss the following themes:
- attitudes towards deaf people and people with hearing loss, and organisational systems and policies that can impact inclusion
- deaf awareness and British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation, which can significantly affect people’s experiences in work
- access to reasonable adjustments
- environmental and systemic barriers, such as inaccessible physical environments and expectations for ways of working
- the role of external support such as audiology services in supporting people’s needs in work
The Access to Work scheme can play a significant role in enabling people to get into work and access the support they need. Research related to the Access to Work scheme is discussed separately later in this report.
Attitudinal and organisational barriers
This section discusses the impact of attitudes towards deaf people and people with hearing loss in the workplace, within the context of organisational cultures and policies. This theme includes stigma surrounding being deaf, using sign language, or having hearing loss, as well as overt harassment and bullying, social exclusion, and dismissal of people’s needs in the workplace.
These themes are commonly reported in research about disabled people in the workplace, including deaf people and people with hearing loss (Brown 2025, Lindsay 2022, Levitt 2022).
Attitudes of colleagues and managers can challenge or facilitate equitable employment. Negative attitudes and discrimination can be hard to prove and therefore hard to challenge and change (Business Disability Forum 2021a). Conversely, positive relationships with colleagues and managers can help compensate for insufficient formal support (Brown 2025) and make people feel welcome and included in the workplace.
“The support I receive from my colleagues and employer, who are aware and inclusive, creates a nurturing environment that allows me to thrive. When people take the time to ensure I’m included, it eases my anxiety. I feel empowered to share my ideas without the fear of being misunderstood.” – RNID storyteller Jack.
53% of deaf people surveyed in one instance did not feel supported at work. 83% had experienced social exclusion, 69% had felt lonely at work, and 34% had experienced bullying or “acts of unkindness” specifically related to being deaf (RAD 2021b).
Stigma may also include making negative assumptions about the ability of deaf adults to fulfil the demands of their roles, which can then affect relationships with colleagues, and career progression (Elkins 2025, Brewster 2017). Deaf people may also feel they have to “prove” themselves more than hearing colleagues, due to assumptions that they are less capable or less valuable to the team (Bevan 2013).
The attitudes of managers are particularly key, with significant influence over their employees’ careers from recruitment to career progression. However, attitudes towards deaf people and people with hearing loss are inconsistent, so that workplace support and inclusion rely on the knowledge and attitude of individual managers (Bevan 2013).
More research is needed to identify effective interventions. Potential solutions include enforcement of attendance at mandatory equality and diversity training (Brewster 2017). Limited evidence on what does work suggests that organisational change is a key enabler, such as taking a proactive, inclusion-first approach across the organisation, combined with appropriate accommodations for individual needs (Brown 2025).
Deaf awareness and BSL interpreters
Deaf awareness is a key component of attitudes towards deaf people and people with hearing loss in the workplace, with potentially significant impacts on the experience of deaf people and deaf BSL users.
Colleagues’ deaf awareness levels are a key barrier or enabler of deaf people’s experience of work (Royal Association for Deaf People 2021b). Limited deaf awareness in the workplace affects multiple aspects of deaf people’s lives, including relationships with colleagues, available support, and general inclusion. At its most extreme, lack of deaf awareness can become a hostile working environment in which deaf people are actively excluded and have no appropriate support (Elkins 2025).
Another related element is BSL interpretation in the workplace. Access to qualified, trusted interpreters is crucial, but deaf sign language users are also affected by their colleagues’ understanding of how to work with interpreters. Some studies therefore focused on the perspectives of hearing people who work with deaf sign language users. These highlight how lack of familiarity and confidence working with interpreters can impact a hearing person’s ability to work with deaf colleagues.
Hockaday (2024) interviewed hearing people working with deaf BSL users, all of whom felt they lacked confidence working with interpreters, and were uncertain of what was expected of them, even though they viewed interpreters as a positive addition to the office that enabled them to work with deaf colleagues. Familiarity with interpreters allowed hearing colleagues to become more confident, and begin to engage more with whether their deaf colleagues had full access to the meaning and intent of communications.
Access to trusted and qualified interpreters, and the ability to choose to work with the same interpreters on a regular basis, were important to both deaf sign language users and their hearing colleagues. Known, trusted interpreters inspired greater confidence that they understood the context and nature of work conversations and technical or specialist language, and were “safe hands” to communicate meaning and represent the person being interpreted, whether deaf or hearing (Hockaday 2024, Napier 2022).
In settings with a large amount of specialist language, access to qualified interpreters familiar with the setting and terminology used is particularly key, but often an unmet need (Sheikh et al. 2021). RNID and DeafATW report that 89% of BSL users said it was important to work regularly with the same BSL interpreters, as they were able to develop a nuanced understanding of their work and communication needs, and build rapport and trust (RNID and DeafATW 2026).
Integration of BSL interpreters in the workplace also affects social relationships with colleagues. This can be important to wellbeing but also to working well as a team. Even where deaf people have access to interpreters, this access may not extend to informal interactions with colleagues. This could also be affected by hearing colleagues’ understanding of interpreters, for example whether they viewed an interpreter as only for deaf colleagues, or instead recognised that the interpreter’s role was to enable communication for all co-workers (Young 2019).
Reasonable adjustments
Under the 2010 Equality Act, employers are required to make reasonable adjustments to elements of a job that disadvantage disabled people. This is a legal duty, but access to reasonable adjustments is not always consistent, and research suggests a lack of clarity about what people are entitled to, and who is responsible for the process.
For example, a survey by the Business Disability Forum found that 78% of disabled people had to initiate the process of getting reasonable adjustments, rather than their employer taking the lead. This meant their success was partly dependent on their confidence asking for support. Only 10% felt it was easy to access reasonable adjustments (Business Disability Forum 2023b)
There are multiple reasons someone may not feel comfortable asking for further adjustments. One study found that lack of knowledge about adaptation possibilities, and fears about cost to the employer were key barriers for disabled people in the UK. All participants reported experiencing some barriers to asking for adjustments, and knowledge about adaptations for people with sensory disabilities was particularly low.
There is a need for more information and training for employers regarding what is available in regard to workplace adaptations, and what their obligations are as employers (Moody 2017). Research suggests deaf people also need better access to information about the support available to them at work (Sheikh et al. 2021).
Moreover, the experience of deaf healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that reasonable adjustments may not be upheld or prioritised during high pressure situations. Deaf healthcare professionals experienced significant challenges due to the lack of transparent masks and access to reasonable adjustments, with some having to leave patient-facing roles (Grote 2021).
However, none of the included studies specifically investigated access to reasonable adjustments for deaf people and people with hearing loss, nor were there studies exploring specific reasonable adjustments and what made them accessible and valuable for employees. This is a significant gap in the evidence about barriers and facilitators to employment for deaf people and people with hearing loss in the UK.
Environmental and systemic barriers
Attitudinal barriers appear to be the most commonly reported or researched problems,, but the physical environment of a workplace may still be inaccessible for deaf people or people with hearing loss (Bevan 2013).
A small number of included studies did report on environmental barriers. These studies generally focused on specific environments and industries, such as the heritage sector (Direct Access and Historic England 2025), or a single university (O’Brien 2019) or film/TV set (Hoare 2026, Randle and Hardy 2017). It is therefore not possible to make generalisations about how accessible work environments are for deaf people and people with hearing loss. However, it does suggest that environmental barriers should be further considered in future research.
“Open plan offices and large meeting rooms have bad acoustics and make it incredibly hard to hear, even if the speaker is sitting right next to you. My worst nightmare is when someone pulls me aside to divulge something private or confidential, and reduce their voice to a whisper so as not to be overheard. They may as well not be speaking at all, for all I will hear. I know many people will be thinking: “just tell them you can’t hear”, but more often than not, I already have – multiple times. It can be awkward, frustrating, and embarrassing.” – RNID storyteller Sandra.
Case studies from specific sectors demonstrate that environmental challenges can vary between sectors, requiring solutions that are grounded in understanding of different work environments.
One study focused on environmental barriers for deaf academics in a single UK university. Barriers included not having enough space in corridors to hold a conversation in BSL while walking, and having to argue for long periods of time to have features such as accessible fire alarms and doorbells installed. This led to a sense of not being able to focus fully on work due to navigating environmental barriers throughout the day.
Environmental features could also lead to deaf people feeling isolated from colleagues. For example, offices without windows were an “impermeable barrier” to the outside world, blocking them from behaving in the “collegiate manner” expected of them by the university (O’Brien 2019).
Another sector with unique challenges for deaf people and people with hearing loss is film/TV production. Lighting and the positioning of people around the set can affect people who need to lip read or a reliable line of sight to BSL interpreters. The demands of on-location shoots, fast-paced work, frequently changing crews, and on-set culture can also negatively affect disabled staff, including deaf people and people with hearing loss (Hoare 2026, Randle and Hardy 2017).
Research highlights a lack of awareness and mentoring for disabled people, including implementation of reasonable adjustments (Hoare 2026). Career progression can be challenging, as the most inclusive environments are likely to be those associated with specialist programmes. These are relatively rare, and horizontal or vertical progression can be difficult. Networking may also be difficult, as interpreters are less likely to be available for informal socialising (Hoare 2026, Randle and Hardy 2017).
However, Hoare (2026) also described a set designed with disability inclusion in mind for disabled, deaf, and neurodivergent cast and crew. In this case, inclusive strategies were implemented from the start with the help of an Access Coordinator, such as regular rest breaks and access to quiet areas, using access passports to communicate needs, and holding regular check-ins to resolve emerging issues.
This case demonstrates that it is possible to create inclusive environments for deaf people even in particularly challenging workplaces like film sets, but that it requires placing sufficient value on accessibility that it is built in from the start, and not seen as a ‘burden’ or optional add-on. This is supported by research that shows generic HR support failed to secure the same accommodations and support for disabled people as specialist equality-related HR support (William 2016).
Finally, the heritage sector in the UK is another sector where the environment is relatively unique, and therefore can be challenging for deaf people and people with hearing loss. Heritage sites are likely to be older buildings with hard walls and floors, and may suffer from insufficient access to communication technologies such as hearing loops (Direct Access and Historic England 2025). These cases demonstrate that addressing workplace barriers requires solutions that are appropriate to different sectors, alongside generally applicable improvements such as improving deaf awareness and access to in-work support.
External support
The final theme related to barriers and facilitators to employment was that of support for workers with hearing loss outside of the workplace. Audiological care for deaf people and people with hearing loss can intersect with their experience as working people.
Research focused on the experiences of audiologists (Zuriekat 2022) and people with hearing loss (Zuriekat 2024) found that there is a lack of focus on the working lives of people with hearing loss. Problems included facilitating access to appointments for workers with hearing loss, and developing relevant resources to support their needs in the workplace.
The extent to which audiologists were willing or able to discuss work-related needs and provide relevant advice varied between individual audiologists, exacerbated by variations in deaf awareness (Zuriekat 2024). Supporting audiologists to address the specific needs of workers with hearing loss could contribute to the wider context influencing the experiences of people with hearing loss in employment (Zuriekat 2022).
“I don’t think an audiologist ever asked me, ‘is it difficult at work? Can you still go to the meetings? Can you do work?’ They never really talked about some of this assistive listening equipment, or reading lips, or what adjustments you might need to make at work. They don’t think about the whole person” (quoted in Zuriekat 2024).
This suggests that one avenue for future research would be to consider the holistic experience of working age people who are deaf or have hearing loss, including audiological care, to understand how factors inside and outside of the workplace affect their access to employment.