Kamaka Ukulele - Employment of People With Disabilities

Employment of People With Disabilities

In 1955, Kamaka first hired disabled employees, a time at which the disabled were viewed as unable to work. Two hearing-impaired individuals were hired as craftsmen, and were found to be exemplary workers, because of their enhanced sense of touch, which allowed them to craft better ukuleles, able to feel the thickness of the wood.

In 1999 Kamaka held a retirement celebration for two master craftsman who had been with the company for over 40 years; both were deaf since birth.

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