A qualitative study of situations turning a hearing disability into a handicap

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the handicap creation process. Twelve hearing-impaired middle-aged subjects were interviewed monthly for 5 months. The interviews focused on the subjects' own descriptions of stressful situations related to their impaired hearing. The analysis of the interviews was influenced by the constant comparative method for grounded theory described by Glaser & Strauss. The primary aim of this inductive method is to generate a theory, models, or concepts from the data rather than to verify an existing theory. Eight categories were grunded in the present data, describing potential situations for a handicap to arise. These formed two higher order categories or concepts: situations related to environmental factors and situations related to life habits. The results of the study fitted in well with the proposed revision of the World Health Organisation definition of handicap, as well as with a Swedish version of an environmentally-related definition. In addition to this, the results from the inductive study were confirmed by findings from interviews with 50 hearing-impaired subjects.