I supervise. And rather than calling people, I walk over and talk to them in person. Yes indeedy. It is a little more effort, it does take more time, but I am doing my job. I walk upstairs and downstairs as well. It is no big deal. Also, walking around and talking to people increases your visibility and lets people know that hey, you can communicate and are approachable.

I would also like to point out that for YEARS deaf people have been trying to overcome the perception that they can’t handle the telephone responsibilities that come with many jobs. For years employers got away with not hiring deaf people based on this perception, but with the advent of technology and relays, things have changed. Almost every upper level job I know of still requires some telephone use. And unless you can demonstrate your ability as well as your willingness to handle such, those jobs may well stay out of your reach. Email is great and we are all dependent on it, but there are still others who prefer NOT to put things in email for one reason or another. There are certain things that I will discuss only in person and refuse to put in an email.

Last, are you seeking this IM stuff as a reasonable accommodation or a matter of personal preference?

Once they set up an in-company IM system, I think communication would by far be a lot easier and smoother.

So really, if I want to talk to someone on the floor above me, basically i should pick up the phone, call the relay, and ask them a question which only takes 15 seconds. When it’d be 10x easier to just walk up there (especially since I’m still not familiar with everything that goes on here, and I always have tons of questions, i should waste 5-10 minutes of my time and theirs everytime i have a question?) When setting up an interoffice IM system would be fairly easy. I know they’re working on it. (I think it just needs to be compatible with MACs….which tends to be the problem more often than not)

As for having my co workers do my work, they do NOT do my work. Often times I cannot get ahold of our sales executives via email because they are constantly on the road, so they call them for me & check to make sure they have received my emails, etc. They don’t do my work. As my supervisor says, we are a team, we help each other when needed.

also for BG’s comment—Email would suffice, but we have such a limited memory for our mailbox that it’s constantly filling up (since we send a lot of attachments.)

than ask yourself, what does “reasonable accomodation” mean?

I suggest you ask yourself those questions….

-me

As for the telephone, I strongly recommend you get used to using it no matter how complicated it is. Getting co-workers to do YOUR work is a really BAD idea. Sets a bad precedent and if you ever want to move up they are going to remember - “oh, she’s the one who wouldn’t do the telephone calls.” It is always a bad idea to hoist YOUR responsibilities on co-workers no matter how nice they are about it. Reasonable accommodation can be provided to help you use the phone - TTYs, VRS, amplifiers, whatever you need. Plus, you are setting a poor example for other deaf people.

I view the telephone issue as a bigger problem than the IM problem.