Anonymous: The deaf awareness issues I have faced at work (BSL)

Q. “Are there any issues or challenges facing you at work? How can we help?”

A. “I am tired and frustrated by the lack of Deaf Awareness in the office, and I’ve started working at home to avoid it.”

When I answered this question in my recent supervision, it made me realise how badly I’d been affected by this-emotionally, and mentally. My work was suffering, and I was too, to the point where I had decided to shut myself off from my colleagues because I couldn’t stand having to deal with the same problems daily.

Despite mentioning Deaf Awareness adjustments regularly, I still encountered people talking from behind their screens, facing away from me, or (my personal pet hate) as they ate their breakfast in a meeting. Nobody wants to see that, especially when they’re trying to lip read!

The office can have background noise, and is dark in places to accommodate other people’s needs, and I understand that. I work hard to be flexible-but that’s the problem. I’m expending so much effort, when it would be far easier for my colleagues to make small changes to their behaviour.

As soon as I wrote how I felt, it seemed so clear-both the issue and the solution. Perhaps I’ll offer to do a Deaf Awareness session for the staff-although it should be a Deaf professional delivering it, I don’t think we could afford it-and then everyone would be informed and on board. However, I also felt a bit scared-what if they think I’m just making a fuss? I’m not profoundly deaf, or a BSL user, or a hearing aid wearer-I’m just hard of hearing.

Like the instance at a conference years ago, where the speaker laughingly said, “Oh I don’t like using this microphone-nobody needs it do they?” and I raised my hand, I felt prickled with embarrassment but also flushed with rage. Why can’t people make the smallest of adjustments, to help their colleagues? It seems so obvious-although I’m sure I’ve messed up in situations in the past through sheer ignorance/innocence of disability rights issues.

My colleagues are mostly very kind, decent, and “right on” (the old slang for “woke”) and I know they would probably feel terrible to discover they’d been unwittingly ableist. It is natural not to know, or remember, but I don’t have the energy to keep accommodating them. I can’t just ignore it, because then I miss out on valuable work discussions and can’t contribute. In general, it’s not our role as hard of hearing and D/deaf employees to keep educating people…but this time, I’m going to start planning their Deaf Awareness session.