Fear of not being understood is a common concern.
When it comes to communicating with individuals who have a hearing loss, it seems that we tend to go to one extreme or the other. We either yell or give up, deciding what we have to say is not that important, anyway. We either avoid trying to use the little sign language we know or assume we are qualified as an informal sign language interpreter when we really aren’t. Sometimes we run away from communicating at all with someone who is Deaf. How do we get the right balance? How do our own fears play into it and what can be done to conquer those?
[Quick clarification on the use of Deaf/deaf in this post: “Deaf,” capitalized, refers to those individuals who identify culturally as part of the Deaf community. When we use “deaf,” we’re either referring to those who still identify with hearing culture but have a severe hearing loss or we’re talking about an audiological condition. See this article from the National Association of the Deaf.]
Fear of not being understood is a common concern on both sides. Employers may be concerned about the incurring expenses of accommodations or ending up in a lawsuit over ADA violations. However, people who are and hard of hearing often worry that employers will focus only on their hearing loss and not recognize the skills and experience they bring to a job. Judging from the experience of Christen A. Szymanski, Ph.D., they have good reason to feel this way.
Szymanski wrote An Open Letter to Training Directors Regarding Accommodations For Deaf Interns that was published on pages 16-18 of the November 2010 (Vol. III, No. 2) Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) e-newsletter. Despite his extensive background both educationally and professionally, and the supposed disability awareness on the part of the training directors, Szymanski repeatedly found that his candidacy was not based on his abilities and achievements, but on erroneous assumptions about his being deaf.
In their Tip Sheet on Technical Standards in Healthcare Careers, The National Deaf Center advocates the use of “functional” descriptions of duties rather than “organic” ones. They explain that functional descriptions are based on the desired outcome, whereas organic descriptions delineate how a task is to be accomplished. By only focusing on reaching the desired goal, employers and others empower the individual to use alternative means for the how. This approach not only includes more people getting the job done but also unleashes powerful creativity and paves the way for better outcomes.
One of the obvious concerns for both you and the individual with a hearing loss is “How will we communicate?”
At first, this may seem like an insurmountable obstacle, but it becomes much more manageable when each individual takes an active interest in making it happen. In addition to using pen and paper, taking turns typing messages on a laptop or other electronic device, using gestures, and sometimes acting creatively, a number of assistive devices can help.
Although hearing aids may provide adequate amplification and quality of sound to enable some people to hear and un
derstand everything that is said, this is frequently not the case. It is a misconception that hearing aids take care of all hearing issues. Many people find that hearing aids help them make out some speech but not everything. Others who may identify as Deaf may use hearing aids to be aware of environmental sounds or for balance purposes but are still unable to hear or understand speech. For some individuals, the addition of assistive listening systems may make the critical leap to understanding speech.
These days, many hearing aids and cochlear implants come with a telecoil or T-coil. This neat little feature not only makes telephone use easier but also enables the use of assistive listening systems called loops. A neckloop is worn by the individual listener with a compatible hearing aid in a classroom situation, for example. For larger meeting venues, induction loops may be installed to meet the needs of several people in the room. In either case, whatever is said through the linked microphone is transmitted directly to the T-coil of hearing aid users, eliminating all other extraneous noise. Sound quality and understanding of speech is greatly enhanced as a result. Theaters, churches, and/or other meeting rooms that have the blue symbol (above) posted are equipped with an induction loop system that can be used by those attending events in those rooms.
Other assistive listening systems include infrared systems, which work similarly to induction loops, but require that nothing obstruct the pathway from the transmitter to the individual receivers. For more details about assistive listening systems, how they operate, and tips for various users, go to the National Deaf Center’s website.
It is always important to ask the individual with a hearing loss, how they prefer to communicate.
If they prefer American Sign Language (ASL) but no local interpreters are available, several ways exist for remote interpreter services to be enlisted. To learn more about these options, see the National Deaf Center’s Tip Sheet on Telecommunications: VRS, VRI, and TRS.
Keep in mind that individuals with hearing loss rely more heavily upon visual cues to get information. Whether at home or in another location, they need flashing lights or other visual signals when an emergency arises such as a fire alarm regardless where they may be. Alerting devices for oven timers, alarm clocks, machinery malfunctioning alerts, etc., can all be switched or coupled with visual signals.
For example, a Baby Cry device, designed for Deaf parents to be notified when their infant is crying in another room, could be used for other purposes. The Baby Cry is often attached to a light source, which flickers or flashes according to the kind of sound the baby is making. Deaf parents become accustomed to the types of flashes associated with different kinds of cries and respond accordingly, just as hearing parents do with the particular sounds their babies make, depending upon their presenting need.
Alarm clocks may be used with vibrating discs or sticks that can be placed under the pillow or mattress of an individual who is deaf to help them wake up in the morning. These same devices could be adapted to other needs in the workplace. Phone apps can also be adapted to specific needs with a little ingenuity.
Employment specialists are masters at rigging up templates and devising a wide range of tools to enable individuals with disabilities to complete their duties on a job. Explore the resources below to learn about some of the devices already available and to spur your creativity in applying them to your situation. But also be sure to ask the individual you are serving who has a hearing loss for their suggestions. After all, some of them have been coming up with solutions to living in a hearing world for a long time. You might even find a way to plug that skill into a job in their community!
RESOURCES
- Alerting Devices
- Alert Systems for People with Hearing Loss
- Phones and Mobile Devices
- Hearing Assistive Technology
- How to Interview Deaf Job Candidates Using ASL Interpreters by Brendan Gramer
- How Not to Discriminate Against Deaf Job Candidates by Les Howard
- Job Interview between Deaf and Hearing
- Interviewing a Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Person
- Integrating a Deaf Employee in the Workplace