Hey! Welcome back to my blog, life has been very busy the last few months with lots of changes and adjustments. I have titled this blog post ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ as I feel like I have been doing a lot of that lately, as well as I have been actively working with Action On Hearing Loss NI on their Working For Change campaign which I feel is SO important to Deaf and Hard of Hearing people.
I am currently a month into my new job and loving it, it is scary for anyone dealing with change and starting a new job but for me it felt terrifying. It is so exciting to get stuck in to new projects and play a role in a digital team, however for a Deaf person it’s a whole new world of understanding. I’ve experienced so many new things in the last few weeks and had to adjust to new surroundings.
I’ve never worked in an office environment before and as I sit at my desk I see mouths moving, walking about, phones being picked up and lots of computers which at the beginning made me feel restless as I was so aware that if someone spoke to me and I didn’t hear it might look silly or rude. If your like me…. once your focused on something an explosion could be happening behind me I would have no clue…cause my mind in the zone!! Meetings are a weekly thing and it’s always easy to keep up but being the only deaf person makes me so aware of what I do compared to others, lip- reading and writing is stressful to say the least, so I sit and try and absorb all the information.
I feel a lot of the time the barriers are ones I make for myself based on previous experiences and judgements of others, my mind focuses on things like am I looking too much at the person to lip-read? Am I asking them to repeat things too much…do they think I’m stupid now? Would they take me more seriously with my hair down covering my hearing aid? These things all rush through my brain everyday but I tell myself I am good enough, qualified enough and good people don’t care about those things. It’s important that you as colleagues help everyone feel comfortable, I try to always make people feel included, free to express their views and respect them when they are speaking.
When I apply for jobs I sometimes don’t put my deafness down in anyway so I’m not pre-judged regarding my capabilities and intellect. Even though it’s something I’m proud of and I know I have the abilities to do the role, I still get scared of the harsh reality that people judge and societies stereotypes can stop people from making their own decisions.
Action On Hearing Loss’s Campaign is something I am so passionate about because every person that realises and understands these issues makes a better working, learning and living environment for every deaf or hard of hearing person. You need to have to confidence to say if you need something to assist you at your role, don’t let anyone point out the gaps to you or that your struggling, make sure your not struggling have faith in yourself and ensure you have all the means to execute the job the way you know you can. I believe this confidence and determination will pay off one day and will change the mind set of everyone that come in contact with you along the way. I make sure that I always try and educate others on the barriers that can be put in place with all people with disabilities and truly believe that businesses are missing out on extremely talented individuals due to the inability to see past a disability. Moving forward into a new career and I hope that I can continue to grow in confidence with working in a hearing environment and that with more discussion, support and awareness discrimination and inequality will decrease more and more.
Thank you for reading my post. Please support and share the Action on Hearing Loss Campaign and make a conscious effort to respect and support everyone.
Amy x