Guest Author - Kelli Deister

While looking through the classifieds recently, I came across a job advertisement for a hospital. They were seeking possible employees for various positions. However, what stunned me was the fact that, upon further researching the vacant positions, the hospital had listed particular job requirements that included the necessity to be able to hear and see. This led me to question whether or not this specific employer follows certain disability and discrimination laws.

I am aware of the discrimination that many prospective Deaf employees face on a daily basis while interviewing for job vacancies. While I am aware that certain employers feel that it is a possible safety hazard to have a Deaf person performing particularly dangerous tasks, involving sound, I do not agree with their thinking, or their fears for that matter. Honestly, it infuriates me that some employers possess an insistence on not allowing a Deaf employee to assume the position in question. Deaf people are just as capable of performing job duties as hearing people. Whether a person is hearing or Deaf should not be the issue in question, but whether or not they have proper and adequate training for the position available.

Interestingly, one of the positions available at the hospital was one of a clerical nature. I am left to wonder why they would specifically require a person to hear, in order to perform clerical duties. Surely, they are aware of the TTY phones. Surely, they are aware that they could hire an interpreter to assist the Deaf person in communicating with fellow employees and customers. My next question for them would be whether or not they simply do not want the extra cost of hiring an interpreter, in order to accommodate the Deaf employee?

Do some employers consider the disability and discrimination laws an extra cost to incur or an added burden? Do they truly believe that a Deaf person is incapable of performing duties on the job, simply because they are unable to hear? I believe the real question is of a discriminatory nature, due to the perceived high cost for their business, which in turn saddens me, as a hard of hearing individual.

All employers have the responsibility to hire individuals on the basis of their skills and abilities, without basing the hiring upon whether or not they can hear. Not hiring Deaf individuals, simply on the basis of their hearing, is discriminatory and against the law in the United States. It is my opinion that this is not open to discussion. This particular hospital would do well to rethink their job requirements and begin opening up vacancies to eligible and qualified Deaf individuals.