The calendar can be an eye-opener if you think about it in terms of ongoing face-to-face communication. I want to differentiate how a person who is hearing and a person who is deaf communicate daily based on the calendar. It’s very important to understand why people who are deaf don’t have equal communication access like people who are hearing have on the job, and how that can affect future opportunities and promotions.
Imagine a worker who is hearing at his or her job every day from 8:00 to 5:00 striking up conversations with co-workers, managers, clients, and other hearing peers without hesitation. Hearing co-workers can sit down and discuss work-related issues at 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. They can do that any number of times a day, every day. Now picture a person who is deaf, sitting at a desk, wanting to discuss the same work-related issues with a hearing co-worker.
Do you really believe they would be able to hold the same conversations? They would have to schedule an interpreter to come to the office maybe on the 3rd and the 17th. What about the rest of the month? People who are hearing would not want to converse only two or three times in a month and not be able to talk freely the rest of the time.
A person who is hearing would day: “I can’t do my job that way.” Yet that is what happens to a person who is deaf.
Think about that. Think about how the UbiDuo can give employees who are deaf equal communication access as
employees who are hearing. This is not about replacing interpreters; it’s about filling the gaps when interpreters are not available. Interpreters cannot be available 24 hours a day,seven days a week to facilitate the ongoing communication needs in the workplace of people who are deaf.
Communicate freely,
Jason
The Powerful Calendar
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