With all the technology we now have at our fingertips, you would think it’s a great time to be deaf. But sadly, there are still many issues deaf people face.
Take me for example; I work in a large, global environmental consultancy, working on a high profile project. I enjoy it, it’s challenging and the people here are lovely. However, no matter how much there are laws against discrimination or how much education there is about deafness, prejudices still exist.
This week has been extremely frustrating for me, as I have had several occasions where I have felt that my deafness has hampered me in some way.
The first situation was that a client rang the company, wanting to speak to me. Reception weren’t able to put him through as I am not listed in the phone directory. They passed on the message to me, but I then had to email him and explain that I couldn’t use the phone. This then lead to an email reply saying that in the meantime he had sorted it out with someone else. I realise there are always occasions that people aren’t available to take calls and so something is urgent enough to deal somehow without them. However, I was available and I was happy to help. I felt demoralised and useless.
The second situation: due to the nature of our project, there are many teleconference calls that are held as we have colleagues and clients all spread out. Normally, I don’t attend unless there are a number of colleagues dialling in from the same office as I am. However, I wanted to get clarity on some project work and processes, but was unable to join the call that would have done this. I felt disadvantaged and that I wasn’t able to be part of the process and thus on the back foot as such. I know colleagues do fill me in and let me know, but it is a redundant process as it is not always easy to feedback or share opinions/thoughts etc.
Third situation, I work with some colleagues who are not the most efficient at responding to emails or taking advantage of our internal communicator tool. As I need to interact with them on a daily basis, it can be difficult chasing people up and responding to things especially when we have pressing deadlines and so having to ask colleagues to chase someone else up on my behalf takes away some independence.
Normally, I would always say that it is never an issue being deaf in the workplace ….but the reality is that there are days that it is an issue, and it does frustrate you, and there’s not much you can do about it.
This week is my frustrating week and like always, I will rise above it and move on.
Tara Sethi is an Environmental Consultant working in the City of London, living in the Surrey countryside. She loves travelling, socialising and is passionate about charity work, having helped deaf charities for over 15 years. She is a profoundly deaf CI user.
The Limping Chicken is supported by Deaf media company Remark!, provider of sign language services Deaf Umbrella, and the RAD Deaf Law Centre.
cochlearimplanthelp
December 3, 2012
Hmmm, solutions!
Situation 1 – Ask your company engineer to set your phone up as a virtual phone, so people can call you, and Access to Work to get you a textphone such as a Uniphone 1150.
Situation 2 – For teleconference calls, you can book remote speech to text (or remote CART with 99% accuracy) which works perfectly.
http://121captions.com/online-realtime-text-streaming/
Situation 3 – A textphone would solve this problem. You can also get a company mobile phone and give everyone your mobile number. Use a PAYG service such as Answer to transcribe your voicemails to SMS and emails, and you can send your colleagues text messages. http://121captions.com/talk-to-us/contact-us/
Good luck! And remember, yes being deaf is frustrating, but good communication is everyone’s responsibility, not just yours.
Chronicles of a Bionic Woman
December 3, 2012
The respond above enchoed my thoughts – i use ATW for every meeting and do have my fair share of teleconference calls but i have been able to participate in EVERY single one of them thanks to communication support via STTR. The Equalities Act means your company has to make reasonable adjustments for you – that means but is not limited to them booking communication support for meetings u will be in attendance. You have to be proactive to enforce this attitude in your company. Good luck!
barakta
December 3, 2012
Getting a textphone isn’t as easy as solving the problem though, incoming calls are still problematic and I’ve never had an employer yet who is able (not unwilling) to set up virtual phones due to the analogue nature of TextRelay. I know of a few people who’ve had this, but it’s rare and most employers would decide random person didn’t need a phone. When I worked in a similar environment I had an analogue line… In fact I still have an analogue line and our receptionist takes a number and I call back cos people don’t/won’t use the flipping 18002 prefix and she can’t transfer directly to me (thank you employer PBX which can’t dial prefix..)
Even if you get a textphone service set up how do you persuade busy hearies who are trained by the hoardes of evil spam callers out there to hang up instantly on anything which looks, smells and sounds like a spammer – which TextRelay does despite best efforts to avoid it? Possibly a receptionist providing warning before transferring call could do it but there’s still a delay while an operator connects and I don’t know if you could transfer in at that point – maybe… But it’d still be a delay.
A friend of mine tried to use WebCapTel for conference calls and they really struggled, as did extremely well experienced palantypist/STTR operators. It is possible but it also requires the phonecall to be well chaired, the mic set up to work well and people to speak relatively clearly. I remain sceptical that this is easy even if it is possible as it adds a chunk of complicated tech to the system and tech is cranky (don’t ask how I know this).
I find SMS doesn’t really work on a massive scale like Tara is describing, it sounds like they have email and some kind of instant messenger but sometimes the phone is just so ubiquitous especially for last minute stuff that people will only handle that when busy and ignore IM/email in a way they wouldn’t with a phone.
I definitely agree that it might be something worth looking into again if frustration happens too often. I have weeks where I get hung up on loads, my calls get ditched, people are annoying etc and I think about whether I want to change anything or leave it as it is. Fortunately all my colleagues are in the office, use email or see me in person and I don’t have to rely on them to relay phonecall stuff often cos that always sucks (cos it’s hard).