Deaf Workers in Restaurant,Retail, and Hospitality Sector Employment: Harnessing Research to Promote Advocacy

ABSTRACT

A quarter-century after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (1990). P.L. 101–336, 105 Stat. 327, 42 U.S.C., 12101 et. seq. [Google Scholar]), workplace accommodation is still a struggle for deaf employees and their managers. Many challenges are the result of communication barriers that can be overcome through much needed—although often absent—advocacy and training. This article highlights the literature on the employment of deaf individuals in the United States service industries of food service, retail, and hospitality conducted from 2000 to 2016. Exploring dimensions of both hiring and active workplace accommodation, suggestions are made for how social work advocates can harness information and strengthen their approaches for educating managers and supporting workers.     

What is wrong with the Mission Dependency Index for US federal infrastructure decisions?

The Mission Dependency Index (MDI) is a risk metric used by US military services and federal agencies for guiding operations, management, and funding decisions for facilities. Despite its broad adoption for guiding the expenditure of billions in federal funds, several studies on MDI suggest it may have flaws that limit its efficacy. We present a detailed technical analysis of MDI to show how its flaws impact infrastructure decisions. We present the MDI used by the US Navy and develop a critique of current methods. We identify six problems with MDI that stem from its interpretation, use, and mathematical formulation, and we provide examples demonstrating how these flaws can bias decisions. We provide recommendations to overcome flaws for infrastructure risk decision making but ultimately recommend the US government develop a new metric less susceptible to bias.     

Cohabitation or Marriage? How Relationship Status and Community Context Influence the Well-being of Children in Developing Nations

Population Research and Policy Review - Drawing upon the developmental idealism framework (Thornton et al. Sociol Dev 1(2):69–112, 2015), this study examines the relationship between...     

A generational comparison of problem gambling and gambling attitudes among older adult gambling venue patrons

Gambling is a popular leisure activity for older adults (55+), and existing research suggests that overall older adults are less prone to problem gambling compared to younger cohorts. People born after World War II are now beginning to reach retirement age. The purpose of this article was to explore age-related cohort differences between people born from 1943 to 1960 compared to those born from 1925 to 1942 in their attitudes and behaviours related to gambling. This study employs a large sample (2103) of older adults collected at gambling locations across Southern Ontario, Canada in 2013. Comparisons were made using Pearson’s chi-squared tests for categorical variables and independent samples t-tests for continuous variables with logarithmic transformations for highly-skewed variables. Those of the 1943 to 1960 cohort showed significantly higher problem gambling scores and per visit spending, but lower numbers of visits per year. There was no discernible pattern between cohorts in terms of attitudes toward gambling. Assumptions of lower risk of problem gambling among older adults will have to be re-evaluated as the post-war generation becomes an ever greater proportion of older adults.     

WINNING IN PROFESSIONAL TEAM SPORTS: HISTORICAL MOMENTS

Our aims in this paper are to (1) examine the higher moments of the distribution of winning percentages and (2) discover economic implications of such an examination. The results prove useful to both current sports league policy questions and future research. We speculate that the institutional differences between North American pro leagues and European soccer leagues will prove fruitful areas for future research on the determination of competitive balance. (JEL C1, L83, Z20)     

Women’s Reproductive Choices in Australia: Mapping Federal and State/Territory Policy Instruments Governing Choice

The reproductive choices available to women, and the consequences of those choices, exist within the broader policy context whereby policy is influenced by pervasive ideologies of women’s roles in society and the family. Women’s reproductive rights and their resulting consequences are governed by policy at the federal and state/territory levels within Australia yet little is known about the number or scope of these policies. This study aimed to systematically search and map Australian policy to identify the number and scope of policies governing women’s reproductive choices and their consequences, including how policy interprets the role of women in society through their reproductive choices. The systematic search identified 147 Australian policies in 2013. The mapping of the policies identified common themes that drive policy agenda impacting women’s reproductive choices, including those where the focus is promoting motherhood and/or children, providing economic incentives, regulating reproduction, or a broader health focus. These policy agendas simultaneously construct and are shaped by the context in which women’s reproductive choices and impacts occur. Women’s reproductive choices are highly politicised and regulated, impacting women’s position within society.     

Effects of Employment-Based Programs on Families by Prior Levels of Disadvantage

This study examines how welfare and employment policies affect subpopulations of low-income families that have different levels of initial disadvantage. Education, prior earnings, and welfare receipt are used to measure disadvantage. The analysis of data from experiments suggests that employment-based programs have no effects on economic well-being among the least-disadvantaged low-income, single-parent families, but they have positive effects on employment and income for the most-disadvantaged and moderately disadvantaged families. These programs increase school achievement and enrollment in center-based child care of children only in moderately disadvantaged families. The most-disadvantaged families are found to increase use of child care that is not center based. Parents in these families experience depressive symptoms and aggravation. The findings raise questions about how to support families at the lowest end of the economic spectrum.     

Thinking outside the box: Strategies used by low‐income single mothers to make ends meet

Recent changes to Australia's welfare system have impacted low‐income single parents who have been moved from a family payment, Parenting Payment Single, to a lower payment directed at individuals looking for work, Newstart Allowance. Research has shown that single‐parent families are particularly vulnerable to the risk of financial deprivation and poverty, and this recent welfare payment change further compounds the often dire financial situation for these families. Twenty‐three in‐depth interviews were conducted with low‐income single mothers who had been recently moved off the Parenting Payment Single and on to Newstart Allowance. As a result of this payment change and the decreased welfare assistance, the women spoke of needing to develop new strategies to compensate for their decreased income. This article focuses on the strategies these families developed and employed, exploring the women's ability to be resourceful in times of welfare changes.     

Divergence of the world city system from national economies

This study shows that the position of cities in the world economy has diverged from national economies. Using data from 2016, we evaluate a network of 12,802 cities formed by the location decisions of 24,355 firms in terms of their point centrality, and show that the inter-city and inter-national systems have measurably decoupled, disrupting the previously-observed pattern in which the most powerful cities in the world city system were located in core countries, "mid-level" cities were in the semi-periphery,and the least powerful cities were in peripheral countries. Our findings support predictions that globalizing cities would diverge from national economies and that globalization would generate a new global geography that transects long-standing cleavages in the world system.