Liam O’Dell: How the ‘domino effect’ impacts on deaf education and employment

I’ve written before about domino effects – the constant barriers which come up at every stage of a deaf child’s education. Yet it seems I hadn’t properly considered just how far these issues stretch in terms of studying and employment.

I say that as someone who always admits that they had a relatively good education, but completely understands that a lot of deaf children and young people don’t have it so lucky. I had an incredible Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) department to thank during my GCSE and A-Level years for making sure that the right support was in place, and a careers advisor who first suggested I set up a blog way back in 2012. It was that one suggestion nearly eight years ago which has since led to me writing weekly articles here on The Limping Chicken, so I am certainly thankful for that careers support.

Though careers guidance is what I wanted to talk in this piece. In case you missed it, last week the National Deaf Children’s Society released their Deaf Works Everywhere report on all things relating to the world of work.

While I talk about my careers support during my school years being rather good, nearly half of the respondents (45%) said they feel they aren’t being supported by their school or college when thinking about future choices. One of the most striking statistics is the fact that 90% said they hadn’t heard of the Access to Work scheme which provides support for deaf young people in employment.

Note that I say that it’s striking, and not surprising. It was only in my last job that I finally decided to explore Access to Work as something which may be able to help me out. It’s a journey which I have only shared with friends offline, but when I read about a high proportion of deaf young people not knowing anything about it, it kind of helps to explain why…

So having had fantastic palantypists (also known as speech-to-text reporters) whilst at university, I was keen for this to continue in the world of work. When I first submitted all the necessary documentation at the start, it was the one type of support I was emphatic about receiving in my job, to help with meetings and so forth.

The next step was a workplace assessment – the usual meeting where they ask you about the barriers you face and what you may need to help you work around them. At this stage, I was told that I was keen to receive a Roger Pen. This obviously wasn’t the case, not least because they aren’t compatible with my particular model of hearing aids. Again, I stressed how incredibly beneficial palantypists have been in the past. This was noted.

Then came the phone call. We’ll ignore the fact that a deaf person having to answer the phone to discuss accessibility is incredibly ironic, but I missed the call anyway as the phone rang during work hours. For clarity, I can use the phone, but if a conversation is as detailed or formal as discussing workplace support, then I often find it better presenting my thoughts over email. The person ringing was my advisor from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), calling to confirm that a Roger Pen had been recommended. In an email back to them, I queried the decision.

“I do apologise for any confusion,” they reply. “This is why a phone call is often more useful to discuss this with you.”

Not the best way to start an email, if I’m honest.

They went on to cite the Roger Pen as being the most ‘cost-effective’ form of support for me and the issue with my hearing aids not being compatible? They suggested new NHS hearing aids altogether, something which “may resolve your hearing problem”. STTRs, however, are “usually only considered if the customer has no hearing at all and does not speak BSL”.

It should come as no surprise that the DWP went on to receive a strongly worded letter of complaint from yours truly.

For those curious, I did manage to get the right support in place, thank goodness. However, when you look at the latest Government data which shows that deaf and hard of hearing people are the “largest Access to Work customer group” at 16%, I do wonder how many other deaf people out there had to fight just as hard – if not, harder – to get the support they need.

After all, going back to the ‘cost-effectiveness’ point, when I think about the kind of support a lot of deaf people would find useful in the workplace, most of it is practical support, from people like interpreters, lip speakers and palantypists. These, of course, are different to a one-time piece of kit like a Roger Pen which only has a single cost.

Where am I going with all of this? Well, while I don’t want to go all conspiratorial on a news site like this, you have to wonder how much promotion the DWP are doing of the Access to Work scheme when 9 out of 10 deaf young people haven’t heard of it. Granted, the sample size was only just over 100, but I’m sure the findings apply to most deaf young people across the country.

So, it all taps into the aforementioned domino effect. If deaf children and young people encounter poor access at GCSE and A-Levels, then it explains the fact that in England, they fall a grade behind their hearing peers. Let’s not forget also, that when society introduces these barriers, it can have an incredibly demoralising affect on our confidence. The bureaucracy of an Access to Work application certainly dented my deaf pride a little bit. If other deaf young people are approaching the world of work having had their confidence knocked by a shocking lack of access in education, then is it any wonder that two thirds of them said they would hide their deafness on job applications out of fear that they wouldn’t be offered the role otherwise?

Although that is just one part of the problem. We also have to look at employers and people like the Government, too. In another job when I first mentioned Access to Work (though I didn’t apply for it in that instance), my boss admitted they hadn’t even heard of the scheme. Sure, that’s just one employer, but you have to question how much the DWP are promoting the fund to the business sector. The current situation right now, with stories of deaf adults being turned down for 1,000 jobs over the course of 18 months, suggests that the lack of promotion around the scheme means employers are assuming there’s no support available for us, only large amounts of extra paperwork.

It’s all interconnected, and from the first few years of education to employment, the barriers and discrimination snowball. We not only need everyone to recognise the part they play in offering support to deaf young people, but to put it in place as soon as possible, in order to prevent the snowballing we’re currently seeing affect those studying, and venturing out into the world of work.

Photo by Ollie Cole.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and blogger from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.