Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Editor: One of my pet peeves is the tendency of society at large and many Deaf organizations to lump the Deaf and hard of hearing together, as if to indicate that they have the same issues and the same resolutions. Nothing could be further from the truth! Here's an eloquent statement of that reality from Randy Collins (randy.collins@NAU.EDU). This "article" originally appeared on the HLWork list, which focuses on hearing loss issues in the workplace. If you'd like to subscribe to that list, send an email to HLWork-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

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Don't get me started on the ASL qualification for jobs for "the deaf and hard of hearing." I have a LARGE soapbox I stand on when I address that issue. I am getting to the point of being militant about it. We are not "and hard of hearing". We are not less deaf. Just because someone offers services for deaf doesn't mean they understand hard of hearing (hoh). They usually don't. You guys already know this. But I say it at every opportunity. Many jobs for "deaf and hard of hearing" are really jobs working with deaf, and oh yeah hoh if any show up. It is a growing issue and I hear more hoh people complain about it. Agencies who claim they serve hoh cannot continue to shut us out because we don't sign or sign well enough when the number of potential hoh clients is much greater than the number of Deaf clients!

Relay companies will tell you that their numbers for deaf initiated calls peaked long ago. The deaf market segment has been informed and trained and talked to and supported. ALL deaf people know about relay. Hard of hearing? That's another story. If relay numbers are going to increase they are going to have to come in part from hoh - a largely untapped market. That's fact. National relay people will tell you this. But how many hoh people work in relay outreach? I know of one - Curtis Humphries at Sprint in Maryland and actually Curtis no longer works in outreach. Curtis was great at it. Every hoh person in Curtis' area loved him. MCI - none to my knowledge, ATT - none, Hamilton - I don't know. So who is doing the planning, the marketing, and the outreach for these companies? Deaf people and hearing people. And how are they marketing to hoh people? Exactly as they market to Deaf people - yet it doesn't work for hoh. The relay companies don't know why!!! Why don't they have hoh people in marketing and outreach? Relay companies spent millions supporting Deaf Way II, which was for "deaf and hard of hearing." You know it was for Deaf people and I know it was for Deaf people, but to the world everyone thinks it was also for hoh. Hoh people don't care, Deaf Way is not an issue; but the fact remains that if you ask relay companies where they are supporting hoh people they'll mention Deaf Way. The point is they don't really see the distinction.

Relay companies spent millions supporting a market segment that is saturated and tapped out. They have long ago reached most of the Deaf relay market but they are pouring money into support of the Deaf community. One of the major reasons why is because they don't know of any other way. Marketing to hard of hearing people by hard of hearing people would be an entirely different effort. Communications Services for the Deaf (CSD) in South Dakota runs the relay centers for Sprint. CSD knows nothing about hoh people. They have no hoh people on staff, no hoh people in marketing, no hoh people in outreach. They will tell you they serve "deaf and hard of hearing." CSD had a booth at the Seattle SHHH Conference. What did they exhibit? Video Relay!!! I'm not kidding. That's not very big at all with hoh people. Deaf, yes, but not hoh. Why would they market video relay at a National SHHH Conference? In part because they market from a Deaf perspective, they don't know the hoh population, they don't know how to reach hoh people and they don't know that they don't know. We do! All of the above need hoh people in their businesses and there are none.

I was just having a discussion yesterday concerning the inequity in vocational rehabilitation (VR) and the assignment of hoh clients to deaf counselors. Our native language is English and our cultural orientation is hearing. Yet VR often assigns hoh clients to Deaf counselors whose native language is ASL and whose cultural orientation is Deaf. If you were to turn the example around and give a Deaf person a choice between hearing and Deaf VR counselors, Deaf people would chose Deaf counselors because they share a common language and culture. Yet hoh people get just the opposite.