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The two questions I ask in the video are:

1. How do you discriminate (even if you don’t mean it)?

2. What happens when you do discriminate?

"Where do you work?" "What do you do for a living?" In America, these are among the first questions a new acquaintance will ask us. This simple inquiry r...

I particularly enjoyed this article by the Huffington Post because it went into detail about the barriers deaf/HOH people feel in a professional setting. One of the barriers was that deaf people just feel left out of the conversation, whether it be a meeting or their lunch break, they tend to feel more isolated. Also, they are less likely to become promoted, therefore get raises, therefore excel in the company. “Even casual communication in the workplace is important, as it builds rapport and a sense of camaraderie.” I agree with this statement because managers and higher-up’s tend to hire people for bigger positions based on their personality, how well they know the person, if they have built a good name in the company, etc. Deaf people have a difficult time doing so when they aren’t able to communicate with these people.

#deaf #unemployment #employment #disability #equal opportunity employment

BDN this month reveals the findings of a new survey which demonstrates a lack of support for deaf people both while they are seeking employment and while they’re employed. Discrimination plays a large part in the working lives of deaf people and many are forced to quit their jobs because of it. That is the …

This article displays the struggles deaf people go through finding a job, communicating effectively with the Deaf, and relying on under-qualified interpreters at times. 47% of people stated they didn’t feel supported at work on issues related to being deaf. Another 56% of people stated they felt discrimination towards them because of their hearing status and 25% of people stated they quit because of it.

#workplace

Scenario #2

Imagine a new person walks in to your work. You and your coworkers can see he has an interpreter and so he’s deaf. The interpreter leaves as the work day is wrapping up. You go to approach him and say hello but your coworker walks up to him, teasing him about how he is better at him because he can actually hear. What do you do in this scenario?

A) You don’t want to be teased as well, so you walk away and hope he stops.

B) Defend the new deaf coworker because it’s the right thing to do.

C) Talk to the manager and hopes he takes care of the situation.

prepaidafrica

Haben Girma was the first deaf-blind student to graduate from Harvard Law School. Today the Eritrean-American fights for better education for deaf-blind people worldwide.

A celebrated speaker, she provided the introductory remarks for the 25th Anniversary of the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] at the White House.

Watch her TEDxBaltimore Talk

aslfan

When I was 4 years old, my mother and father received devastating news—I was deaf.

In case you were wondering...

I wanted to research the laws deaf people are protected under. As it applies to the workplace, here are just some of the rights Deaf and HOH people have, according to www.nad.org:

TTYs, amplified telephones, captioned telephones, and videophones;

instant messaging and e-mail systems;

assistive listening systems and devices;

visual alerts for audible alarms and messages;

modifications to reduce ambient noise levels;

captioned audiovisual information;

permission to bring service animals into the workplace;

modification of intercom entry systems for secured areas or buildings; and

policies and procedures for procuring necessary qualified interpreter services and real-time captioning or CART services.

Their rights are covered under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) if you work for a private company, meaning for-profit and non-profit organizations.

A blog about deaf people's rights and who are dealing with discrimination.

This article describes some of the reasons why employers won’t hire Deaf people. The article states communication/telephone culture and the costs of having a sign language interpreter are the two biggest reason employers won’t hire a Deaf person. Why go through the “hassle” of getting an interpreter when there are hundreds of applicants that don’t require one. Obviously, this is wrong and discriminatory, but I understand the logic. Many people still don;t understand how badly the Deaf have it in working conditions. Constantly being shut down for interpreters, not getting a job they are obviously qualified for, and that is just the beginning. That is not to say every Deaf person in America has it bad, but most people struggle to find even low-paying jobs so it’s that much harder to get to the top of the ladder.

72% of deaf people have received no support because of being deaf in finding a job 65% believe developments in technology have made it easier to be deaf

This article was difficult to read because you hear about discrimination against hearing status, but until you see the numbers of people who have actually quite because of it, it hits you. Here are the statistics:

72% of deaf people have received no support because of being deaf in finding a job

65% believe developments in technology have made it easier to be deaf in the workplace

56% have experienced discrimination in the workplace due to being deaf or hard of hearing

62% from colleagues

53% from management

37% during a job interview

25% have left a job due to discrimination

19% have not told their employer they are deaf or have experienced hearing loss

As you can see, the article really lays out how discrimination can take place. It doesn’t have to be “hands-on”, in fact, you might not even know you’re doing it. It can be from not having enough support (lack of interpreter/other accommodations if need be) to not even feeling comfortable enough to tell the employer they have a hearing loss.

nyledimarco

Top 10 Basic ASL you need to know!

FOLLOW ME: instagram.com/nyledimarco

oneearouttheother

These 10 basic signs can be very useful in the workplace! I remember when I was a Daycare Teacher and a Deaf student walked in, who knew very basic sign- hello, how are you, thank you, milk, etc. The parents told me they had to go to many different Daycare’s as the teachers weren’t willing to work with the child. I wanted to learn more ASL to communicate with his parents and they were elated as they were Deaf like the child, and someone was actually taking an interest in their child.

Suggestions for Improvement

I found that there are many challenges Deaf and HOH people face every single day. This blog is mainly about struggles in the workplace, but education, social interaction, and even getting insurance are among a myriad of struggles. According to verywellhealth.com, there are 6 ways to bridge the gap between the Deaf and hearing communities:

Improve access to health information for deaf families. This includes adding captions to all public health information with audio, like informational videos, and ensuring that emergency preparedness plans are made with the input of deaf and HOH individuals.

Include more deaf and HOH people in the research process. Recruitment for public health research projects should be tailored to the deaf and HOH populations, including providing and collecting information using ASL.

Collect and analyze new and existing data with deaf and HOH people in mind. This could include the simple addition of deaf-related demographic information on surveys, such as at what age hearing loss occurred.

Encourage ASL users to participate in public health discussions. Community-based participatory research should actively recruit deaf or HOH individuals to provide insight into all health issues—not just those related to hearing—and interpretation services should be provided at public health conferences and events.

Encourage deaf and HOH people to work in public health and health-related fields. By embarking on careers in health, deaf and HOH can then help shape training curriculum and health experiences to be more accessible to their deaf and HOH peers.

Advocate for more funding for communication services. Interpretation services are essential for deaf and HOH populations interacting with the health community, but they can be expensive. Talking with policymakers about the need for and importance of funding for these services could help allow for expanded access to medical services and health-related programs.

If we follow these steps for improvement, we will change our society drastically. If we actually include the Deaf in discussions (about the Deaf!!!), we might actually see more effective change.

Challenges in the Deaf Community

This article talked about the general idea of the challenges Deaf people still face, but I am going to focus mainly on the workplace setting challenges. Thankfully, in 1990 the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) passed a law stating you cannot discriminate against hearing status. There are still major gaps in employment, though. According to this article, only about 37% of Deaf and HOH (hard of hearing) individuals have full-time jobs, whereas hearing people are sitting at 55%. In education, there are major gaps as well. 31% of hearing people have Bachelor’s degree’s or higher whereas the Deaf are at about 18%. Not as good of an education leads to not as good of a job, so it all goes hand-in-hand.

Correll, Robyn, and Richard N Fogoros. “What Challenges Still Exist for the Deaf Community?” Verywell Health, Verywellhealth, 24 Oct. 2017, www.verywellhealth.com/what-challenges-still-exist-for-the-deaf-community-4153447.

Opportunities for Deaf Professionals

This article explained how opportunities for the Deaf have grown increasingly throughout the years, but there are still major gaps. For example, up until fairly recently, there wasn’t even one deaf superintendent for any school of the Deaf. Now, we have over half of the newly appointed superintendents as a member of the Deaf community. According to the article, there are still no minority Deaf superintendents, but the article was from 1992 so that could have changed. Regardless, the numbers are growing, but not fast enough.

Moores, Donald F."Editorial." American Annals of the Deaf, vol. 137 no. 5, 1992, pp. 379-379. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aad.2012.0370

Scenario #1

Imagine you are Deaf and you are going on a job interview. You’re completely qualified, in fact, maybe overqualified. You realize there is not an interpreter there, even though you specifically asked them for one. You ask if you could have an interpreter present and get denied because you don’t speak “his/her language”. The entire time you feel like they are just waiting for the interview to be over with. I took a survey of 10 Deaf students, most of which also have jobs, and asked them what they would do in this situation. Here are my results:

1. Two people said they would stick it out and try to answer their questions on a piece of paper.

2. Four people said they would walk out of the interview because nobody should be treated that cruelly.

3. Four people said they would try to educate them, respectfully, and tell them they need to have an interpreter, and then reschedule the interview.

deaf-a-rising

I’m deaf, not stupid

Everyone at my work knows that I am deaf.

So, one time I didn’t hear my manager say to me to go and do some returns. He was staring at me like he said something and so I said, “what.”

He replied with an exaggerated look, “Returns.”

I was oh yeah sure!

He started to explain how to do returns in a dumb way. (He does this to everybody, I wasn’t singled out) I was a bit annoyed, so I said,

“I’m deaf, not stupid.”

As I was walking away, I heard him say, “that was kind of mean, wasn’t it?”

I turned around and smirked at him to let him know that no offense was taken.

Sometimes, you gotta put them in their place.

Professional Preparation and Advancement of Deaf Teachers

This article talked about two struggles Deaf teachers face:

1. For the present it appears that one out of every five teachers of the deaf is a deaf person. That means the other four out of five teachers is a hearing person who is able to advocate for the Deaf community, but not able to relate to Deaf students as much as a Deaf teacher could.

2. The demand for Deaf teachers seems to indicate an established need. It had not declined over a long period of time, which is good because that means Deaf professionals are still working. In fact, the trend continues to increase, even with the more emphasis on oral teaching in the schools. All in all, there is still a need for more Deaf teachers.

Irving S. Fusfeld, (1997). American Annals of the Deaf, 0002726X, Vol. 142, Issue 3

Minority and Minority Deaf professional: How Many and Where Are They?

This article was particularly interesting to me because I was curious on how Deaf professionals are distinguished between themselves, in terms of minority hearing and minority Deaf, and not just Deaf professionals versus hearing professionals. A survey of 6,043 professionals in 349 deaf education programs was one. It showed that 10.4% are from nonwhite or minority ethnic/cultural backgrounds. Of these minority professionals, 11.7% are deaf. Only 8 minority deaf administrators were found. “Chi-square analyses showed that ethnic/cultural background and hearing loss were strongly associated with the type of program where the professionals were employed. More than half of the minority professionals worked in public schools. The District of Columbia, New York, and Maryland lead the country in the number of deaf professionals employed. More than half of all black deaf professionals work in either D.C. or New York. Texas leads the country in numbers of Hispanic professionals employed, and New Mexico has more Hispanic professionals than does California, New York, or Florida.”

Andrews, Jean F. & Jordan, Donald L."Minority and Minority-Deaf Professional: How Many and Where Are They?" American Annals of the Deaf, vol. 138 no. 5, 1993, pp. 388-396. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/aad.2012.0340

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