I wanted to comment on A Deaf Pundit’s question, “Do we have to abandon our language? My answer is No, it does not have to be abandoned. However, business in the U.S. is transacted in English. In order to be successful, and to prove to the hearing bosses that Deaf people can do anything, and excellent grasp of written English is required. Sign Language and interpreters are fine for face-to-face business, and relay works well for phone calls, but written communications need to be in correct English.

As I told the hearing people that worked with me, you may never meet the people you work with, given the national and international aspects of today’s business world. Your emails and instant messages might be the only introduction you will ever have to those people. Correct English is important.

The bottom line is, don’t give up your language or your culture! Both are beautiful and valuable additions to business and to our world in general. Just understand that flexibility and the ability to fit into the corporate world will allow you to go far!

Heck, Georgetown University would be a perfect partner.

The problem is in the individuals themselves. If they are taught to be willing to listen, learn, and apply, then they have the ability to absorb the rules, learn how it works, and apply it for their own advantages.

It helps a lot when you are stubborn at your goals, but realistic at what it should be. You should never accept that there’s a glass ceiling that can not be broken through. It may be there by default, but people of all types have indeed broken through the glass ceilings all over. Women, Blacks, Asians, Indians, are now dotting the top tiers. There are deaf people up there too. Just not as many as we all know is possible, but they did indeed break through.

Keeping an attitude that people are out there willing to listen and learn, and we can continue to teach them how to succeed, or how to help us succeed.

So basically, stop thinking that even though we are so comfortable among each other using sign language, we should give up on the hearing people, because they are ignorant of our abilities.

It does help a lot to have advocates on the hearing sides. I got my current job partly because my boss’s boss have an aunt who’s deaf, and he can sign (although it’s a pretty lousy homemade form of sign. Hehe) Because he knew how strong-willed his aunt was, he knows that I am just as capable. All I had to sell was my abilities to him, and thanks to him, all of my other bosses are fantastic as an advocate for me to my clients.

Thanks to their support, I sure made them quite a bit of money, but hey, I got my cut! :)

I found that when deaf people are not working well with the hearing work forces, it is usually caused by at least one of the following:

1. Inflexibility on the employer.
2. Inflexibility on the deaf employee.

The vast majority of the folks just have to go out and demand everything under the sun, and find themselves without an advocate to protect them when the haters start gunning for their dismissal.

So basically, we have to not only be flexible, but we also have to haul ass so much that we get protected by people around us when we actually go and request an interpreter for something, or whatever.

To have a full time interpreter is illogical when there are other tools that can be provided. Can you use a computer? Then use e-mail and IMs! That’s how my sysadmin friend does his job — e-mails and IMs. :-) It was also the very reason he used to prove that deaf folks can be a labbie at RIT. It was thanks to him that I was able to be a labbie, and that other deaf folks other than me are able to be a labbie. We are able to help people using many different medium — pen & paper, IM, et cetera. Hearing folks generally like us, because we actually pay attention to their issues, and try to figure out what is going on.

We have to be flexible and find solutions to our problems. We just can not outright go and demand something simply because a lot of us demands it. It may work sometimes, but boy, you’ll have a LOT of haters gunning to fire you.

This is why I am so sad about the whole Gallaudet protests. In fact, I would bet JKF is willing to resign, but refuses to do so, because she want to teach those protesters a lesson — negotiate, not demand. That’s also why I’m supporting the CSOG group at this time.

I have been doing the same for several hearing folks here, and would be more than happy to help you if you’re in the Phoenix region. You just need to be motivated enough to learn.

It is a godsend when you have a good pair of interpreters helping you at a conference or training classes. Just lean back, watch, and offer a word or two when they keep spelling the same thing.

Plus you have no idea how sweet it feel to be among deaf people chatting away, without having to concentrate on their accents.

Currently, I use My IP Relay to caption all teleconferences, and honestly, the vast majority of the operators utterly sucks.

They frequently skip words, and misspell them, and so on forth. Their accuracy rate is much lower, maybe 50%. If we could have a technology that achieve 98% accuracy, then I would be utterly thrilled.

But for phone one-on-one conversation, My IP Relay is just perfect, as long as the other side can be a wee bit patient as I type things out on my sidekick. :)

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG TIME.

It’s such a bunch of utter bullshit that EVERYONE have to wade through. It is so unfair, and even more so for deaf people. You have to interact in noisy environments, with people who love to wear mustaches, doesn’t even bother looking at you, and all **** like that.

But we have to do it if we want to be where we want to be.

I have a new friend who is a teacher, and she bitches to me about how crappy education is, and all the stupid things she have to do these days. Guess what? EVERY SINGLE TEACHER have to do just about as much stupid things as she does. It’s not surprising that 50% of the teachers drop out within the first 5 years (or whatever statistical figures that is being thrown around.) Is it right? Is it wrong? Who knows.

But it’s something that you just have to deal with, whether hearing, deaf, white, colored, man, woman or whatever.

I am personally earning a six-figure income at IBM. Of course, it requires for me to interact with IBM clients, the vast majority who does not know sign language, much less ASL. Currently, I only know of one other deaf employee at IBM, and he works in Australia. He’s huge in his deaf community, though.

I know of many of my peers from NTID/RIT who are also in well paying positions, especially positions they are very happy with.

True, people like myself are huge pioneers in our positions, but here’s the thing: It was people at Gallaudet back in 1980 that claims that the best that my parents should expect from me is a vocational job.

That type of attitude is so self-defeating. Please stop thinking that there’s nowhere else to go, and look at the entire world as your own personal playground. The more we all get into the fields we love and enjoys, the more opportunities will open up.

Remember, you don’t even have to know how to speak. One of my dear friend absolutely do not speak, but he’s one of the most respected system administrators among the hearing world, so much that he’s being recruited all the time. He’s also fiercely loyal to his company, wart and all.

Why are there no deaf people in power? Because there’s not enough of us to actually push to be in those positions. There are MILLIONS of hearing folks competiting for those jobs too, you know?

Why do I fight? Because it is MY life. It is MY future. It is MY happiness I seek. I have my own goals that requires a lot of work to achieve. The same is true for everyone, really. Yes, I am incredibly selfish, but then… it’s far better than asking for handouts, don’t you think?

I disagree. I think you are doing a disservice to the deaf community if you think there are not people like that out there. I’ve met plenty of them. I think there are BETTER options than JK. Those people are just as comfortable with the hearing world as she is. Just because they might not speak as well as she can, doesn’t mean they do not have the ability to interact with hearing people. Speaking ability is not the only gauge of which a person can make connections with hearing people.

We really don’t give enough credit to fellow compatriots who graduated from Gallaudet and is now succesful today.

That was what bothered me about your response- it seems as you don’t think “deaf people (who sign ASL and went to a deaf school) are ready to function in the hearing world”