Chris Wilson

Deafness in the Workplace: Let’s Have a Good Laugh

by Adrianne Fitch

Christiana Wilson, a deaf Human Resources consultant, once misunderstood something while speaking with a colleague at work. The colleague quickly corrected her, and the error struck both as hilarious.

“We laughed ourselves silly,“ remembers Wilson, who works at the City of Vancouver Parks Board. Then another colleague, recently laid-off, overheard their laughter and came by her office.

“I apologize for not getting to know you in the time we have worked together,” he said to Wilson. “I have been ignoring you because I was so afraid that if you misheard something and I had to correct you, I would upset you.

“’I have just witnessed what happens when you mishear something -- you have the time of your life!” he remarked. “I have missed out on that and I am so sorry.” Wilson said she was sorry too, and suggested they stay in touch.

“I will never forget that,” she says. “It strikes home to me, how much I need to let people know what I need from them. I need to really make it clear.”

“I tell people right off the bat: I am deaf, I may totally misunderstand you,” she continues. “I always make sure to say, I can mishear some weird things! You may need to correct me, and you won’t embarrass me. Let’s have a good laugh and then we can get back to business. People can feel relaxed about it.”

Having lost her hearing gradually in life, Wilson never received formal training in ASL or lip-reading. She manages communication barriers using a cochlear implant, TTY device, Bell Relay Service, close captioning and Murphy, her dog trained by PADS (Pacific Assistance Dogs).

But even the greatest technical aids cannot replace teaching others to accommodate your hearing loss, Wilson says. Occasionally, she has to remind colleagues to make eye contact with her, speak slower and enunciate, especially within a group.

“In a new working environment, during meetings or when facilitating a training session, I always indicate what I need from people in order to have positive and constructive communication,” says Wilson.

She clarifies her needs right in the beginning, during introductions. “I tell them who I am, what my background is. Then I say, I am deaf. I hear sound because I have a cochlear implant. But I still need you to maintain eye contact because I do still need to lip-read.”

“When you have a question for me I will walk up to you,” she says when facilitating group training. “That is not a sign of aggression on my part, it is because I want to understand your question. Then I will step back and address you and the rest of the group when I answer.”

“This has worked very well,” Wilson says. “I also say to people, if I am speaking to someone and you are behind me and you have a question, just wave your hand. And I say to the group, if you see someone waving their hand, just point it out to me.”

If a training exercise involves a flipchart, Wilson would have difficulty hearing while writing with her back to the group. Nor would she want to run back and forth between each speaker and the flipchart in front. In this situation, Wilson asks a colleague or workshop participant to write on the flipchart for her.

“I let people know that they are involved in helping me communicate,” she explains.

She also tries to educate people on the difficulties of living with hearing loss. In one of her workshops, for example, Wilson asks the question: If you had to have a disability, which would you choose?

Almost everyone picks deafness. “They say it is the least debilitating of all the disabilities, the easiest one to accommodate, they think it’s a breeze,” says Wilson. “I say to them, I hope to God you never have to face hearing loss.”

One difficulty of hearing loss is its invisibility, notes Wilson. She tells people she is deaf but because her speech is normal, they may forget or not be fully conscious of it. They may not believe she communicates or responds like a deaf person. The shoe drops, however, when Wilson misunderstands or fails to respond.

Other difficulties involve large groups, noisy environments, and social isolation. “I may respond inappropriately to a question or comment, and the person would get a strange expression, turn around and walk away,” she says.

“I make it sound easy to deal with hearing loss, but it’s not -- it’s incredibly hard,” she adds. “I can’t tell you how often I have gone home in tears because I felt isolated from the group.”

Wilson’s hearing loss has also impacted her career. About two years ago, she left a high-level management position because she felt her deafness imposed too many professional barriers.

“I felt I was not able to do my job anymore,” she says. “At meetings, things were going over my head. I was growing introverted and found myself spending more and more time in my office, even though I am a very outgoing individual.”

“I lost my confidence,” she admits. “I didn’t want to volunteer for projects that would require me to hear. At that point, I decided I had enough stress in terms of working. Having a disability, by the end of the day you are exhausted.”

Returning to consulting work took Wilson out of the high-pressure arena of negotiating, running meetings and supervising staff. “This job has more one-on-one contact,” she says. “I don’t feel the same pressure of potentially missing crucial information all the time.”

“Since then I have gained a lot of my confidence back,” Wilson adds. “I have training sessions, I go to job fairs. There are times when I think, so what if I miss something? I don’t embarrass as easily anymore.”

Hearing loss certainly presents challenges in the workplace. But most days, Wilson says, her deafness is not really a hindrance. Nor has it kept her from doing the things she wants to do, such as attending conferences.

“Most people know not to phone me,” she explains. “I communicate by e-mail and one-on-one meetings. If there is an issue in one of the community centres and I need to speak with an individual, I will go there rather than make them come here. I am willing to accommodate others, too.”

Wilson likes to compare managing hearing loss to walking with crutches. Hearing aids and cochlear implants don’t make you a hearing person, she explains, any more than crutches enable you to run five miles.

“The technology allows you to communicate but you still have to make adjustments,” says Wilson. “You need to work with technology , and with other people, in order to function at the highest level.”