By Richard Brklacich
It annoys me to no tomorrow seeing a hearing parent preach to a profoundly deaf child, “With an education, you can be anything you want to be.” To demonstrate how so little hearing parents know, I picked 14 hearing friends and 14 deaf friends. I picked only the ones from high school classrooms, social settings not related to any event or my childhood in an effort to ensure a truly random selection. I have never worked with any one of them. One group has deaf people and one group has hearing people. Here’s what they do for a living:
First group: 1) bar owner, 2) business owner, 3) vice-president at a bank, 4) fire department paramedic, 5) lawyer, 6) lawyer, 7) music agent, 8) nurse, 9) plastics engineer, 10) recording studio owner and lead singer of a band, 11) sales clerk, 12) regional sales manager, 13) saleswoman, 14) UPS driver. All have completed college except 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 14 (or 50% completed college). Two came from affluent families. All own or have owned their homes.
Second group: 1) actor, 2) business owner, 3) communications specialist, 4) IT specialist, 5) entertainment industry, 6) professor, 7) shipping clerk, 8) student, 9) teacher, 10) teacher, 11) teacher, 12) teacher, 13) teacher, 14) teacher. All have completed college except 4 and 7 (or 85% completed college). Three came from affluent families. All except three own or have owned their homes.
As you may have guessed, the second group features deaf people. Of worthy mention is that half of my deaf classmates now live at least 100 miles away from here while all but one of my seven hearing childhood friends still live within the 5-mile radius. And half of the deaf people on the list can speak and all were raised using sign language. I have sufficient reason to believe the deaf people in the list are well above average compared to the general deaf population.
It is unfortunate the deaf cannot hack it in the corporate world despite their qualifications and can only thrive in non-competitive positions within the public sector (i.e., teaching) or jobs within entities that cater primarily to the deaf such as CSD, Hawk Relay, HOVRS, or Sorenson. After all, it makes sense for these entities to hire somebody their clientèle can relate to. That, in return, opened doors for many deaf professionals holding college degrees who otherwise would not have fared well in their hometowns. However, the downside is that they had to move thousands of miles away from their childhood friends, families, and memories. And I do not think the weather in South Dakota is that great to boot, but did the deaf professionals have a choice?
Of the hearing group, only one works in the public sector as a paramedic while more than half of the deaf work in the public sector. There are 3.8 million teachers in the United States with a population of 300 million. That makes it 1 out of 80, but that doesn’t stop me from bumping into deaf teachers at social gatherings and I can name at least 17 deaf teachers off of my head, having known them all before they were teachers!
The lack of justification in obtaining a degree that would inevitably render itself worthless was the very reason why I dropped out of school. It all started when I was a 16-year-old beaming with optimism exploring different avenues for my future. An older man asked me point-blank, “So you really think you’re going to get a cushy job as a deaf person?” I shrugged, oblivious to reality, “I can speak, and I am going to college.”
It turned out he was able to speak and he spoke with excellent English, signing at the same time, “There are phone calls, there are meetings with lots of people, there are foreigners with thick accents, and you got to do all of that. So much for my Master’s, it was a sham.” He found all my buttons with such startling accuracy and my carefully stacked house of cards collapsed. On my 17th birthday, I dropped out of school, to my mother’s chagrin.
By the time I was 24-year-old, my ability to type 120 words per minute got me a job as a word processor at a local engineering firm. My strategy was to start from the bottom, prove myself, learn new things along the way, mold the job to my specifications, and climb up from there. Nowadays, I do a lot of things, brochures, graphics, proposals, technical editing, desktop publishing, video editing, working with outside printers, creating animated presentations, photoshopping, among many other things. My salary grew and I was able to afford an ocean view home in an affluent area and travel extensively around the world, Japan, Australia, England, and so forth. I am now a slightly-wiser 37-year-old who looks back not regretting it a bit.
Are deaf people truly discriminated against when it comes to seeking jobs? What if there was an excellent engineer who spoke only Tagalog with a $60,000 salary and employing a full-time interpreter was $120,000 a year? It would make economic sense to require that the Tagalog-speaker learn spoken English, a feat deaf engineers cannot perform. As fate would have it, more people in America speak Tagalog than sign ASL. In fact, more people speak Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Vietnamese, Italian, Korean, Russian, Polish, Arabic, and Portuguese than sign ASL. There is no truth to the notion ASL is the third most widely used language in the United States when there are only 500,000 ASL signers in America. Why, ASL is not even in the top ten.
Given the scarcity of the ASL, it is no wonder deaf people are subconsciously drawn to each other. Making matters worse, the FCC started the massive exodus of community interpreters by offering Video Relay Service (VRS) providers $17.044 per minute ($177,256 per month for one interpreter working 40 hours a week). If a single interpreter can net a VRS provider $2 million per year, think of how much twenty interpreters can generate! Realizing a potential cash cow, the VRS providers in turn offered interpreters generous six-figure salaries. Recently, the FCC cut its rate to $6.644 a minute (or $69,100 a month), prompting shrill cries from VRS providers, and I cannot for the life of me understand why. It was disgusting to say the least when VRS providers resorted to strong-arm tactics by reducing hours and telling misguided people to protest against the rate reduction with the FCC. I am in favor of further reductions to alleviate the acute shortage of qualified interpreters in schools!
The playing field will never be leveled despite the numerous technological advancements. Face it, for every one the deaf get, the hearing gets ten. The relay service through Sidekicks is nifty but I still need 20 seconds to type, “I am stuck in traffic right now, I should be coming in 15 minutes after eight. Go ahead with the meeting.” Saying it out loud takes five seconds. I have a friend always yammering on the phone, “Yeah, at the recording studio… fine, I will talk to Mike… good, I have it right here… sure, lunch is great… two, perfect, see you…” I envy him! It’s much better than typing in all that and then the caller has to speak slowly. I have had friends admit they dreaded my relay calls and they even taught me how to use text messaging on my cellular phone. Soon, there will be a cellular phone equipped with VRS and I can’t wait!
I would like to stress that I am simply speaking up for the rest of deaf population, not myself. It would not be fair for me to take things for granted and I want others to understand that. I understand some are content working for the government or as a teacher, and some even have the passion to be a teacher, but I have also come across teachers who readily admitted to me that teaching was the only avenue to success.
Granted, a very small minority have gone through college and got an ideal job within commuting distance. An unacceptably small minority, that is. In the meantime, how do we overcome the huge obstacle without being resigned to governmental positions? Are deaf people truly discriminated against? When does it fall under the “discrimination” category? How can we level the playing field without expecting too much from them? When is it “too much” for them to accommodate us? So many questions remain unanswered and will remain so for many years to come.
Born and raised in California, Richard Brklacich has traveled extensively around the world, ranging from Europe to Asia to Australia, yet proudly calls Dana Point his home. Others consider him an oddity for he has never read a single book in his entire life since he prefers playing poker, but that doesn’t render him incapable of enjoying a roundtable discussion, covering a wide range of subjects with his friends over a dry martini.
© Copyrighted material. This article cannot be copied, reproduced or redistributed without the express written consent of the author. As with every blog on this website, this blog does not reflect the opinion of DeafDC.com.
Yeah, yeah. Your story is a complete FAKE!!
Fake..fake…fakey..fake.
I’m telling you. It’s true what he said!
Fake!
Nothing wrong with governmental positions considering what I’ve done over the past 10 years. Nothing easy about that.
Good job, Richard.
Lighten up folks. Richard is one of the rare Deaf fellows to meet nowadays. If you haven’t met him, you’re missing out for some great conversations.
Besides, he doesn’t travel at all, just go to the airports and pose for pictures to send back to his friends.
Fake!
OMG! Don’t tell me you dropped out of 7th grade, McConnell!
Like I said,
Lighten up. If you actually knew Richard’s humour you’d understand.
That’s right. You’re being a fake by modifying your previous comment.
Nice save, cowboy!
Like I said, lighten up.
Richard has told a portion of his story before elsewhere. If you actually thought I was saying his article was a fake, then you seriously need to talk to Richard. Hence, a little clarification for your sake.
Of course, you probably missed my “I’m telling you. It’s true what he said!” between my “fake” comments.
A little humor there on my part.
Contrary to popular belief, McConnell has a sense of humor ;) Heh. I know him personally.
Thanks for writing this article, Richard! It’s one of the rarest best I have ever come across on DeafDC!
Lately, I have been struggling with continuing my education and finding a job that I felt qualified to do. I would not reduce my own dignity to work a menial position such as a janitorial position. I have a brain and a mind to work with, so I require a job to be stimulating and put my entire education to use. If I worked at a sh*tty job, then what’s the point of my entire education from preschool to some college years?!?
I have been trying to continue my education, but always been frustrated with the lack of good interpreters due to the VRS services hoarding all the best ones. I’ll just keep on trying!
Thank you again for writing this entry. You hit it right on the nose!
Deaf258… I agonized over posting this one mainly out of concern I’d offend teachers or those working for CSD. I’m glad you liked it, and I’d like to add I have seen your posts and I respect you although we’re on the opposite ends of the political spectrum!
Everybody comes in different flavors. The saving grace was my ability to type very fast and that was the reason behind my success. Not many people have that benefit.
I am not going to lie thru my teeth and state, “Deaf people can be anything but hear.” The simple fact remains - WHO will hire deaf people? I tried to avoid making it one-sided by looking from the corporate perspective (i.e., hiring interpreters, making the workplace deaf-friendly, and so forth).
People come equipped with five senses. Of all the senses, hearing is the most important one when it comes to career opportunities. Am I the only one who think so? I have avoided saying that for a very long time because there are so many people who vehemently deny it.
Well, hey, look at the bigger picture. That was exactly why I wrote this piece.
“People come equipped with five senses. Of all the senses, hearing is the most important one when it comes to career opportunities. Am I the only one who think so? I have avoided saying that for a very long time because there are so many people who vehemently deny it.”
For many, it’s like swallowing a brick to admit it. Basically, it’s the same principle a family man may hold by not asking for directions because they see it as a weakness to ask for help.
I do agree with you that the sense of hearing is important in business world these days. If not, then people would had missed out on job opportunities by not hearing them out at the water cooler. Many deaf people are left out of the loop in their workplaces and sometimes they don’t even notice it. It pays to be a very observant person and keep up on what people are saying.
Richard.. You’d be surprised by how conservative I am. ;)
Conservative? Just making sure you know Richard Brklacich is a Republican. http://www.deafrepublicans.com/pr_oct27.html
Have fun in your Log Cabins! (Just lighthearted humour)
How would he know I’m a Conservative in the first place? There’s a pretty good chance he already looked it up, don’t you think? ;)
Er, could I ask what you consider to be relatively non-competitive about getting a teaching position? It took me five years after getting the doctoral degree, and the publication of a book, just to get a tenure-track position. Usually there were 30 to 80 applicants with whom I’d have to compete for the sake of getting a first-round interview for a tenure-track position.
And then most parties’ interest in me dropped precipitously when they saw me in person with my hearing aid. A colleague at one university finally broached the idea to me that my hearing disability was the basis for the unremitting rejection letters from those academics who otherwise spend their lives whining about social injustice.
In the most recent round of interviews, one rejection letter even came with a couple of sheets of paper that had handwritten notes — not sure whether those notes were accidentally included or “accidentally” included. Among the names and numbers written was that of the university’s sign language service coordinator — and I haven’t used sign language with anyone for four years, nor did I bring it up in my interview.
For a while, I was worried that all the educational degrees were going to have been a sham. And I almost certainly would have been more affluent if I had dropped out of high school and set myself directly to work. I’m 37 now, and I just feel like I’m beginning to get my footing.
Your remarks about education are good, but I question whether academe is really a reliable source of employment for people with disabilities. From my experience, it is not an automatic or self-evident fit. Perhaps it may be more hospitable than the corporate world, but that wouldn’t be saying much.
Why are the deaf people willing to be teachers while nobody else would? Everybody else would take bartending than teaching. It’s more fun and there’s more money in it.
Not many jobs have deaf people as shoo-in’s and teaching’s one of them. With all due respect, I wasn’t trying to disparage teachers and I do understand it’s a difficult position. Many of them have told me they dread every passing year when the higher up’s in Sacramento mull over adding more hoops for them to jump through.
Let me answer your question with a question. Where are the deaf teachers or professors? The only ones I know of are the very rare examples cited on the Internet. Like in your initial entry above. I don’t think I’ve ever met one in person or otherwise corresponded with one. [Edited:] Of course, there was my ASL professor in college, but I can’t think of anyone beyond her.
By the way, I don’t think you were trying to disparage teachers. I just didn’t think the profession was really open to deaf people. But maybe that impression of mine merely reflects my limited experience.
I know quite a lot of deaf teachers. I live in Ontario, Canada. We have three provincial schools for the deaf. I attended one of them. Ernest C. Drury, that’s the name of the school. While I was a student there, I would say around half or nearly half of the teaching faculty were deaf.
OK, how about deaf instructors in hearing schools, where virtually everyone is hearing? I’ve only had one deaf student in my 4 1/2 years of teaching.
I have heard of deaf teachers who work in public schools. I cannot recall if I ever met any, but they do exist. But it’s definitely not as common as deaf teachers working at schools for the deaf or public schools with educational programs for the deaf.
Go to San Diego. I can say more than 5 deaf teachers are working in public schools in San Diego. Right now there are like 10 Deaf grads that are becoming k-12 teachers. And all of them work at different schools throughout the county. I think Los Angeles has more but then I am not sure myself.
That’s great to hear. :-)
I do know of two deaf teachers here in Orange County in hearing schools. Both of them are ASL instructors.
I happen to know quite a few ASL instructors who teaches at colleges and universities too.
While it is encouraging to see these reports of deaf people in the teaching profession, I still have doubts about whether colleges or universities offer viable chances of tenure-track employment to the audiologically challenged.
It is a profession that stymies even large numbers of hearing people who are competing for a very limited number of positions. In fact, instead of slogging on in that type of job search, it is seen as easier to quit academia in order to pursue employment in the corporate/private sector.
I used to think that only the humanities offered dreadful employment prospects, but one of my neighbors and colleagues at one university said that his friends found it difficult to get teaching positions in the sciences. A lot of his buddies were scraping by on heavily coveted postdocs.
It is extremely important for deaf people to teach ASL courses at hearing institutions, and I am thankful that those teachers are raising awareness of deaf people. I find it somewhat unsatisfying, however, that deaf people should be limited to what could be described as deaf professions. It seems somewhat facile for the hearing world to contain us to an ostensibly “separate but equal” world.
While I do think education is important, I agree very much with Richard’s key point that education will not serve us well if the hiring isn’t going to happen.
I know a lot of Gallaudet professors who have applied to hearing universities with a singular lack of success. So… yes, it’s tough for deaf people to teach at universities, but, then again, the competition is very intense among hearing individuals with doctorates, which could, plausibly, account for the low to non-existent number of deaf professors at hearing universities.
Maybe they’re not “hungry” enough? I know of one deaf/Deaf person who is a professor at a (hearing) university.
Good point. It would also depend on the field. More competition in liberal arts than in the sciences.
Well, there’s a Deaf professor teaching law at Syracuse University, my alma mater.
Tenured?
If it is who I am thinking, it is Michael Schwartz.
http://disabilitystudies.syr.e.....wartz.aspx
I love teaching, man. And I WAS a part of the corporate world way back in the day… worked for a bank. Hated it. The field of education is much more vibrant and alive than anything I’ve ever encountered in the corporate world, although I admit my experience in the latter is limited…
That’s rare. If I may… why did you quit? There has to be an underlying reason.
Just wasn’t my thing. I left education in the first place because I needed more money. Joined the corporate world, made a bit more money (at that level and at that time at least), but in the end just missed being around the students too much.
But to be fair it was an okay environment and a lot of the people who worked there liked it. Nothing against them. Just wasn’t my personal thing.
I just assumed he meant deaf teachers in deaf schools or deaf teachers teaching ASL. Clearly reaching any career which needs a PhD should be lauded.
While I don’t agree with everything in your article, let me point out that although your sample is random, it is hardly representative. A person who is well educated in statistics would ensure that the sample is truly representative of a larger group or set of subjects (in your case, a population of hearing and deaf people) before he can analyze the numbers. There are also other tools that a statistician needs to do to ensure that the numbers are reliable and accurate but I don’t know them very well. As the result, some of the observations in the article are dubious.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
Yes, it is not scientific. No question about that. Nevertheless, nobody can argue that a disproportionately large amount of deaf people are working for the government. There are roughly 12 million government employees out of 300 million Americans. That’s 1 out of 25. Again, I’m not a statistician but why is it that far more deaf people work for the government? Hardly dubious. I had hearing friends from my neighborhood when I was a kid and it was interesting to compare them with my classmates. That is the point I was trying to make. I even went for the “upper-crust” deaf people. Imagine how the rest are faring!
According to NTID’s annual report for 2006, on the average over 5 years, 10% of NTID graduates found jobs in government, 27% in education and non-profit and 63% in business and industry. (Page 86 in http://www.ntid.rit.edu/media/.....t2006.pdf.) This is one example to show how your sample is not representative and how the non-representative sample can mislead to incorrect observations. You need to provide hard data showing that most of deaf employees work for the governments.
There is nothing wrong with working for a government. The governments have very diverse jobs and some of them are very interesting. Want to build a bomb? Find a job in Department of Defense. Want to work with nature? Find a job in National Park Service. Love tax? Try Internal Revenue Service. Space? Try NASA. Crazy over cryptography? Try CIA.
According to the table at http://www.bea.gov/National/ni.....Freq=Year, there are about 24 million full-time and part-time employees working for all kinds of governments (for the year of 2006). That is out of about 144 million full-time and part-time employees or 17% of all full-time and part-time employees in the U.S. This gives you an idea of how widespread the government jobs are.
You can boast how you gained a lucrative job in spite of being a high school dropout. There are other people, both hearing and deaf, people who went through the similar path. But, your subtle message hinting that education is of less importance does not bode well for the deaf kids. For every person like you, there are 10, 100 or 1,000 deaf kids who ditched education on the thin hope of becoming rich only ended up in worse situations. Dr. Benjamin J. Soukup, Jr. who is the current chairperson of Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees did not finish his college education and yet, he gained an honorary (not substantive) doctorate through his substantive contributions to the deaf community. Although it is somewhat embarrassing that he is not the right model for the students, certainly we don’t want the Gallaudet students to look up to him and you and forsake the college without completing education on the thin hope of gaining similar success.
The answer to discrimination, which is the main theme of your article, is more education, not less education. The hearing parent in the first paragraph of your article is right all the way: Education expands the scope of opportunities for his or her deaf child.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.
Joseph, you’re correct. Education will definitely open doors for deaf/Deaf people.
Richard, maybe you don’t like certain doors, but that doesn’t change the fact that more education (e.g., a college degree) DOES help get your foot in the door. It’s much tougher to move up with just a high school degree these days.
Also, the reason many deaf/Deaf people flock to governmental jobs is that the U.S. government has long had an excellent record of hiring them and promoting them, as opposed to employers in the private sector.
So there was zero unemployment for NTID graduates? Now, that is what I call dubious. And the ones in “business and industry” could be flipping burgers. Did you even think of that possibility? There are so many holes in that statement, I don’t even know where to begin.
I am not interested in building bombs. I just happen to like my lucrative (your word, not mine) job. The whole point was that I started from the bottom instead of going to college, and by doing so, I was able to mold it to accommodate my needs along the way. I know of some who did it that way and they are living comfortably too. Talking to quite a few angry people holding worthless degrees was what compelled me to write this.
To answer your question of which positions in the business and industry, turn next page to 87 in the report JPR linked.
It seems they’re not painting the whole picture here. I mean, “postal workers” under miscellaneous? I didn’t know you needed an education for that. How many deaf people are getting degrees in a completely different field and winding up as a postal worker? How many are unemployed? If I had a penny…
We should look at the overall picture instead of VERY tiny picture. Please flip to the next two pages, 88 and 89. It is not worthwhile our time nitpicking on small things. I give credits to colleges for their hard work preparing the students. NTID is focused on their mission statement. http://www.ntid.rit.edu/VPandDean/mission.php
Education is vital to people’s success. Do you give credits to colleges/university/high school? Don’t forget to say thank you to your teachers/instructors who guided you to success (up to grade 11). You better! ;)
Whatever you do that makes you happy, good for you! *I stop my discussion here*
I may be misunderstanding Richard, but I don’t think he is faulting colleges for preparing students. I don’t think he is anti-education.
It seems instead that he questions what could be a virtual charade of sending deaf people through an educational system when employers usually show little interest in the final product, regardless of qualifications or expertise.
I second that “charade” bit. I mean, ever since Gallaudet went through what it did, how many comments have you seen under ever damn newspaper article where commenters say “Oh, I’ll never hire another Gallaudet graduate, they can’t even turn on a computer!” or something like that? How do we know this person isn’t an employer who denies deaf people jobs left and right no matter WHERE they graduated from or how many advanced degrees they’ve earned? How do we know it isn’t all just plain and simple ignorance/prejudice, or worse, outright hostility? And what created it? It’s not a “Gallaudet” problem if the guy feels that way about ALL deaf applicants, simply because they’re deaf…
Not anti-education, but I have seen so much wind up disappointed. That’s where I am getting at. Paying $25,000 a year or $100,000 after four years, and work in the post office?
If deaf/Deaf people aren’t getting jobs that make use of their education/degrees, it’s because of the hearing society. The hearing society has made it very difficult for deaf/Deaf people to break into new/diverse fields.
Yes, they have made it very difficult due to their own ignorance. It is up to us to educate them about the possibilities that we can do with our education.
Gee, when VRS started, I started to see many deafies start their own businesses and succeeding. Many deaf have gotten to managerial positions as well. I’m seeing more self-made deaf millionaires. Granted, discrimation against deaf and hoh will continue; VRS has helped level the playing field somewhat. Perfect? No, but quite a few deafies are getting rich. Maybe u should try sampling whole of USA to get a better feel. Oh, we still have ways to go, but the point is lot of good are happening to deafies nowadays - at least when compared to pre-vrs years.
Wasn’t there just a study posted in here? Shane’s post on hearing-aid users and income…something like that?
I sure did see many succeed. I am no businessman nor am I interested in being one since I prefer stability. Admittedly, my focus was mainly local and I do not doubt deaf people in Rochester and other “deaf hubs” fare much better due to deaf awareness which is absolutely vital.
I work in the corporate world despite not being able to speak at all.
I get by just fine.
It all comes down to attitude. Look at people in the eye and do your job better than anyone in your position has ever done it.
Nothing to it, IMO.
The only issue is lunch time…hard to socialize and rub elbows…which is why I eat at my desk and shorten my day by 30 minutes.
Will I ever be a vice president or a CEO…honestly I doubt it..but I am gonna work until I hit the proverbial glass ceiling…then I’ll figure out what I need to do to make even more money.
To me a job is what you do…not who you are.
It is absolutely fantastic you managed to get your foot in the door in the first day. I’ve also mentioned that ASL signers are very rare with more Tagalong speakers out there and that is why many employers will express reluctance in hiring you. When I first interviewed for my job in 1994, I had to jump through flaming hoops and demonstrate my ability to outdo myself. To make matters worse, I had to try to understand my boss with an unbelievably thick Fronch accent. I think he meant to say French.
The best chance deaf people get is through education. Any education, training school, apprenticeship, even one-on-one learning from a kindly boss or coworker on the job…but education gives one a leg up that going without won’t. Realistically, we are deaf people. Don’t for heaven’s sake influence deaf kids to drop out of school on the thin hope that one can make it big in life somehow. Those shoestring days are long over. Forget mopping the floor. Stay in school.
Beautifully said! Thank you, thank you, and thank you for saying that! As a parent, it is very hard to combat the apathetic attitude toward education.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com
Maybe it is me, but of the successful deaf people I know of who work in the private sector, mainly in IT and computers with some doing web design, a surprisingly large amount did not graduate from college. What’s wrong with trade school? My mechanic makes decent living and even owns his house. The trend has changed and there are blue collar positions that pay much more than white collar positions. Let’s look at it this way. My firm has many engineers; a lot of them are on-call for 24 hours a day. That is why we hand out cellular phones. They are always there to answer questions to clients, regulators, inspectors, and respond quickly to accidents on sites. And what makes you think not graduating from college automatically means mopping floors? That mentality is long gone.
I think computers are the next up and coming field for deaf people. As Michele said, from shoemakers and laborers to printers to teachers to… computer people. I know a LOT of deaf people moving into that field in one capacity or another…
Not everybody’s into computers. Not everybody’s into graphics. Not everybody’s into teaching. But, these three are the main ingredients for success for most deaf people. I understand a few make it through and I applaud them for that. What about the rest? That’s the crux.
Note I did not say graduate from college. Those IT Deafies frequently had enough college to get started, or were self taught (another form of education) through very intense study, or had teachers/mentors who got them started. One does not begin from point zero, especially when Deaf; that would be one strike too many.
I’ve been blessed in that I write code well, and the corporation I work for values me even though I don’t speak at all. My advantage is that the corporation cant tell the difference between code written by a deaf person and a hearing person. In some ways, the computer is an equalizer and I am grateful for that. Now that they got the chance to know the real me, they are now more willing to provide reasonable accomodations and more.
Great blog! I loved it. Thanks for going ahead and publishing it.
If hearing is considered the most important of 5 senses, it is ONLY because the hearing society says it is. That’s all.
We need to keep Deaf history in mind when looking at choice of jobs.
For a very long time, only vocational jobs were open to the Deaf (i.e., carpenter, shoemaker, etc).
Next came printing (and actually at the height of printing, Deaf printers were very well paid and on equal terms with hearing printers).
Now it’s teaching.
Teaching may not be your cup of tea, Richard, but from Deaf history viewpoint, Deaf people *are* moving up, albeit slowly.
And yes, unfortunately, discrimination is a fact of life for most Deaf people. I have a Bachelor’s degree in English and I cannot use my voice well enough to communicate. After I graduated from college, I looked HARD for a full-time job…went on an average of five interviews per month for six months straight, and was rejected by all of them. Just when I was nearly at the end of my rope after 6 months of endless searching and interviewing, one company finally said “yes” to me and I was able to get a job as an editorial assistant for a magazine in Washington, DC (I was living in Maryland at that time). Over the years, I’ve developed a dual career as a writer and an advocate, and while either career has not brought me big bucks, it has brought me immense personal satisfication and enrichment.
Wow, dude, getting a job as an editorial assistant for ANY type of magazine within six months is HARD. Hearing or deaf. I was in the same boat when I graduated with about… well I forget how many but UW-Milwaukee had a LOT of English majors. And all through grad school that’s pretty much what all of the talk was about… how hard it was to get a job in the field right off and how you’d have to freelance for a while (which is what I did).
You did a lot better than a lot of people I graduated with, that’s for sure. I still know people from the program who haven’t even published yet, and that was a LONG time ago….
Chris:
You may be interested in this. NBC is the only network I know that has captioning for full episodes on its website:
http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/episodes.shtml
The captioning’s not in sync though. I can hear voices, and then there’s about a two second or a three-second lag for the caption.
I could’ve sworn I had replied to you, but here it goes anyway…..you may interested in checking this link out:
http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/episodes.shtml
NBC is the only network I know that has captioning for its full network episodes on its website. The captioning’s weird, a little out of sync, and looks like how a teleprompter would be read.
Thanks, Chris.
The magazine I worked for was Science Magazine (a multidisciplinary science journal targeted to scientists and Ph.D.s), which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
I held that job for six years…left only because they were willing to give me pay increases,…and nothing else. They kept the damn ceiling right on top of my head and wouldn’t let me move up at all. I kept the same position for six years despite my attempts to transfer to Letters to Editor dept and Editorial dept. Bosses of both depts found reasons not to allow me to take new positions within their depts.
So had to get out and move on. (So, Richard, yup, discrimination does exist.)
I am sure deaf people are moving up, albeit slowly as you said. Is there a way to speed it up? Technology has helped us, but don’t forget hearing folks are also benefitting from it too. Writing is not my thing and that was why I said I preferred starting from the bottom, and then working my way up. I was able to prove my abilities as time went by. Whenever new software popped up, I trained myself all night at home to prove myself. Now I am at this point where they cannot live without me. I felt I had far better odds doing it that way rather than getting a degree and walking in for an interview expecting the whole enchilada. There is no doubt nearly all workplaces will have initial reservations about hiring a deaf person. Perhaps the low unemployment rate in my area was what cinched it for me, but what if unemployment was high and employers have a decent selection of people to choose from? I would not be in a good position if that happened.
We deaf people have to think of a completely different strategy.
“Speed it up?”
It is the hearing society that determines the speed.
They are ones in the power.
To overcome that, Deaf people would need to take complete control (and I mean complete!) of their Deaf education system….right now, hearing people are in charge of the Deaf education system and it’s in shambles. Witness the quality of graduates of the Deaf education system (I am talking about all types: oral, mainstream, residential).
Next, we need more Deaf people who run solid, financially-independent businesses. They would have the power to hire Deaf people, as opposed to depending on hearing people to hire Deaf people. Deaf people put themselves at the mercy of hearing employers with every interview they go to, because they have to hope that the hearing employer will not discriminate against them and see Deaf people strictly on skill and potential basis.
With 30 million people with hearing loss they constitute 1/10th of the entire population of mostly hearing people. That translates into an economic force to be reckoned with.
I would disagree with you that it’s the “hearing society” that determines the speed. I believe it’s a factor of both hearing and deaf that determines to help speed things up.
And there are many deaf and Deaf owned businesses. The latest one is the sComm, Inc the maker of the UbiDuo communication device. About 90 percent of the employees are either deaf or hard of hearing.
Its sad to see that many of us still experience discrimination while even being employed. Many firms often keep disabled employees at the same position for many years all the while promoting other people over them even though the disabled employee may be just as qualified (or even more so) as the non-disabled employee. It can be very demoralizing to the employee after many years of enduring non-promotions. Advancements are what drives many employees, whether they are disabled or not.
Aquafina,
You raise an interesting point. I wonder if any implanted employee has been promoted. I would like to see
statistics.
It’s hard to get statistics like that, because you’d have to have an oral deaf person with a CI in the same employ as a Deaf person with hearing aids. It’s very rare to have more than one deaf employee in a workplace.