Deaf In the Workplace by Sarah Cochrane
I am profoundly deaf since Birth.
I always rely on lip reading as part of my growing up, so that was an important aspect to me in my career to this day. I have been working in the National Health Service since I graduated from college in 2002.
Thinking about deafness in the workplace was a challenge for me as being in the National Health Service is a very demanding job. I have always been working in the Human Resources sector.
My experiences within the Human Resources Sector were good and bad. My first job was working as a Clerical Officer with Library duties. The team were aware of my deafness. My small office held just three colleagues in total (the admin team) and my desk was near the door for anyone to come in with enquiries they had. So, I was aware when someone approached at the door. I was not apprehensive while concentrated on a task at my desk or wanted my attention. I had to remind them to face me and explained that I was deaf and needed to lip read.
When I worked in the Social Work Library on my own, on three mornings per week, the team had to let me know when the fire alarm went off as I would not be able to hear the sounds, and they would come for me when that happened.
I had to leave my first job because the Trust was getting merged. I had to reapply for a new second job at a new merged Trust and I became a Permanent Administrative Assistant in the Learning and Development Team based at a Hospital in Belfast.
This was challenging because I was involved as part of a big team, on the same floor. I was based in an open plan office where there was other eight colleagues.
My desk was near the photocopier so you can imagine the noise coming from the photocopier and how it was a struggle for me to understand the team when they came in for tasks for me to do and how busy it was for me daily.
In that office they created a “Buddy” system where a colleague who was in the office could let me know when the fire alarm went off or anything else they can let me know such as important announcements etc.
One bad issue in that job was when my team had a monthly team meeting at one time, and the manager asked me to take minutes for the meeting. I was horrified because there was no way I could do the minutes as I had never done this before as of my deafness. I told the manager about this before the meeting started and she insisted that I needed to try this to improve my skills. I did my best doing the minutes and at one stage I misunderstood what the manager were saying, and I had to ask her to repeat a few times, but I could not make out what she said, so you can imagine how often I asked her to repeat, and she was frustrated because she wanted to move onto the next topic on the agenda. I even asked her to show me the notes on her file pad for me to write down, and she refused. I was annoyed and stressed.
After the meeting finished, I typed up the minutes to my knowledge and sent to my manager by email. My manager sent me back the minutes and I saw how much I had missed a lot of information during the meeting. The manager never asked me again to take minutes at future meetings while I was there in my second job.
During my second job in the Learning and Development Team, there were always a lot of conversations between colleagues which I missed out as part of a big team, sometimes they forgot to tell me what was going on or I reminded them gently.
I was part of a “Friday” morning huddle where colleagues gathered and discussed what was the pros and cons of a working week had been for them. I was given a “Speech Bubble” image so when a colleague spoke, I handed the speech bubble image over to him or her to speak out and face me, so I know which colleague was speaking. It was good at first but then it dwindled when weeks went by as colleagues forget to face me etc.
I left my second job because of my long commute to work from home. It was hard going getting a new NHS job as of my deafness. Eventually this job is my current one at a different location, at a different hospital. This job was for the Terms and Conditions Team as a Permanent Human Resources Officer with Typing Duties.
This department had been amazing because they had been on a Deaf Awareness course and my team have been so great to this day because they emailed me with tasks, I needed to do for each day. We have Microsoft Teams and there is a chat room, which the team uses to respond to me when I ask questions on a regular basis, as I get tired lip reading all day in the office. My team are understandable, and they help me when I ask about what people were talking about in normal conversations. My manager is very good to me as she keeps me updated and organising a BSL sign language interpreter for regular meetings and training sessions to this day.
I have a roger pen which is a wireless microphone for various listening situations which is helpful to me. The issues I have had with this team at the beginning were that the colleagues were telling stories and were laughing/joking about at the same time which I could not make out what they were saying. Someone comes in and make an announcement at the door and I could not make out what the announcement were as I currently work in a massive open plan office where they are many colleagues working. I don’t hear when colleagues leave the office during breaks or heading home when my face is looking at the computer screen. There are plans in place to have strobe lightning for me when the fire alarm goes off, that would be a great help for a deaf colleague.
I hope my department will be keen in learning BSL signs and communicate with me soon. I am happy working in the National Health Service to this day.
