About Cordell Vail Expertise I would be very happy to try to answer any questions that you
may have about things you can do as a hearing-impaired person to find a
good job or better your education. I have been working with the deaf since
1996. One of the greatest needs seems to be finding help with getting a
better education and employment. To try to fill that need, started a FREE
deaf job service web page at www.vcaa.com/deafnews/jobs. You can post your
résumé there for free. I am also collecting deaf job information,
educational opportunities and vocational financial assistance for the
hearing impaired from every state and posting it on that web page. Because
the ideal employment for some hearing impaired people would be to work at
home, I am in the process of writing a book about that and I also post
that information on the web page when ever I find it. There is no cost to
use the information on the web page and I will be happy to try to answer
your questions here as well.
Experience I am hard of hearing myself. I lost most of my hearing in Vietnam. My wife and 4 of my 6 children have learned some sign language. I know what it is like to be in a room and have everyone laughing but me because I did not understand what was said. That happens all the time and has greatly changed my confidence socially. So I am very interested in helping others who have a similar disability.
Question My sister is 58 years old and unemployed. She has been profoundly deaf since right after birth (premature birth/oxygen in incubator damaged auditory nerves.) She attended Lexington School for the Deaf in the 1950's and they did not allow sign language. Consequently she has very good speech and her lip reading is also very good. However, this also limits her from comfortable contact with deaf signers since she does not sign. She worked for a company for over 20 years that layed her off about 2 years ago. Since the company spent the last 10 or so years in bankruptcy and her retirement plan was restricted to company stock, her pension is very small. She has done payroll, accounts payable and receivable, lots of software trouble shooting, and has taken many computer classes. She is quite shy and intimidated about trying to find a new job. She can't get motivated to search for a job and I think she is depressed as she spends much of the day only playing computer games and watching television. She is always getting stuff from work at home schemes but we both know that legit ones of those are few and far between. Do you have any advice on what I can do to advocate for her in getting a new job? She is a phenomenal woman and would be an asset to an employer. She just needs some help to get there. We live in Westminster, CA. Thank you so very much. It's awesome that you give of your expertise to help others.
Answer Sara,
I have always said that the only thing a deaf person can not do is hear! Your sister sounds like a perfect example of that. One of the hard things with any person hearing or deaf when they get depressed is to help them start believing in themselves. To start having goals again and working towards bettering themselves. There are a couple of things that you might try to help her.
First, go to my web page at www.vcaa.com/deafnews/jobs and look at the information there and also go to www.vcaa.com/deafnews/jobs/ca which is the CA state page for that web page. On the front page, there is a reference to the LDS Church Career Center (or Employment service). There are 100's of them in California and in most large cities. I know it would really help her if you would take her there. They are very friendly and compassionate. You do not have to belong to the church to use the service and it is a free service. They may be able to help you get her over her discouragement. Even if she just took a very simple job at first just to get back into the work force and start believing in her self then she could move up to better jobs.
The second thing I am hesitant to even say is that you need to make every effort to help her start being self reliant. I don't know what her source of income is but if she has been out of work for 2 years she must be getting SSI or something. That can totally cripple a person emotionally and destroy their self worth. I have worked with the deaf for years and in my opinion that has done more to hurt them than to help them. Many of the deaf (AND HEARING AS WELL) get on welfare and find it is so easy that they don't want to work any more. If you can have a place to stay, food to eat and just enough money to get along why work? So they lose their ambition and get into the welfare rut. I don't know if that is the situation with your sister but I have worked with many deaf who have fallen into that trap and then they are stuck with a meager income, and no hope of anything better.
Third, I would like to suggest to you that you start encouraging your sister to learn sign language and please don't let her tell you she is too old. I know she can learn it and if se will start to associate with successful deaf people, and not just sit home it will do a lot to help her want to succeed.
Fourth, help her get involved in some volunteer activities like at a hospital or some advocate group. Getting out of the house and involved with others will do a lot to help her build her self worth.
I don't know if any of these things will help. But I know that she is very blessed to have a sister like you who cares and wants to find the best life for her.
AND NEVER FORGET.... THE ONLY THING A DEAF PERSON CAN NOT DO IS HEAR! OK?
More good things to come... because we will make them come
