Seriously most of you guys got it made easy, most of you have privileges whether it be from your generations, your backgrounds and the record that you have done all of your lives. Now as for Deaf or Hard of Hearing people and you both have same privileges that you use at your advantage of getting something such as a job, Deaf or Hard of Hearing will have to double the efforts trying to be hired by somebody or at somewhere while the hearing person doesn’t; It’s almost guaranteed that the hearing person would be hired in a heartbeat while the Deaf or Hard of Hearing people wouldn’t even get a chance for an interview. That’s how the society is, if the hearing person has one associate degree while the Deaf or Hard of Hearing have two PhD, three masters, two bachelor degrees, the company or someone would immediately hire the one with an associate degree over the person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing that has several degrees including PhD, Bachelor and masters they still would prefer to hire that one hearing person who have associate degree while not bothering to give the person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing with very higher education along with rich knowledge or skills in a position that they were looking for. Thanks to the society that has been man-made to put the barriers in the Deaf community from becoming a successful person with a great career and being able to put the foods on the table for his or her family while that person with lower education has no family, possibly on welfare or on some governments payroll and practically is set for life even where getting a job for himself or herself is not necessary as the person who’s Deaf or Hard of Hearing has no money at all while struggling to pay for some foods on the table for his or her family.
So I ask several of you with a question, why in the heck did you man-made the society where it forces the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, even Blind or any other disabilities have to make double or triple efforts in it to get a job, education, communication and equal access?
The society that you have made is unfair, surely you made the society to help you guys but doing that makes you selfish for doing so and unwilling to allow any one who is Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind or any other disability to have the same success that you have? Even if you change the society that allows the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Blind or any other disabilities to try to get a job or education and equally that you would normally do to get one of these, it would not hurt your chance of keeping your success because once you have succeed then you have succeed so only thing you can do from it is to do something else to success because there is no point in succeeding something that you have succeed. There is a movement named Deaf Grassroots Movement who have rallied at every capitols in all of fifty (50) states here in the United States to try to ask for equality from some of the people like you guys or the governments. They had to ask for something when you didn’t have to ask for something, it’s like separation all over again when it comes to white people and black people a few decades ago but now this time it is the Deaf or Hard of Hearing separated from the hearing people while the Deaf or Hard of Hearing asks for equality just like the Martin Luther King JR did as he would visit different businesses or places asking for peace or equality with the white people as every one of us is a human beings.
It has gone on like this for decades, no disrespect to the slavery times as it’s the worst thing that happened in the history but it’s starting to looks like Deaf and Hard of Hearing oppression is becoming longer than the slavery. Don’t go telling me that we have a law in place calls American With Disabilities Act (ADA), because even with American with Disabilities Act it doesn’t help us as there are too many people who oppress Deaf and Hard of Hearing people so breaking the law of ADA is barely a crime which this is why so many people were able to get away with it. It is tiresome, it’s exhausting as they have fought for the equality and that goes the same for me because I am hard of hearing myself so I am part of the community who have fought for several years trying to strengthen the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) law or better yet to make a new law to replace ADA to start a new chapter for us in the Deaf community. We appreciate our allies who fights alongside us such as interpreters, CODAs (Child of Deaf Adults), Parents, American Sign Language Professors and other hearing people who realize that the Deaf community has struggles for decades to be equal with other Americans here in the United States when it comes to getting a job, education, communications or equal access.
We even have tried to compromise when we didn’t have to but we have tried several times because many of the people are that selfish and even anti-cultural organizations such as Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AGBell) who have oppress us for several decades as they were the ones who took part in man-making the society with barriers for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to be equally with other Americans. What people does not realize is that all of us including whoever you are that is reading this article, are the same with two differences which is languages and the ability to hear. What I mean by languages, we in the Deaf community uses American Sign Language which is indeed a language, it is our native language and your language is of course English.
Nonetheless there are a lot of people who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing has been denied of their services, got fired due to being Deaf or Hard of Hearing which is against Americans with Disabilities Act to fire the person just because that person is Deaf or Hard of Hearing and us in the Deaf community have a glass above us where we cannot grow any further than we could while the other people goes right through the glass. There is a few of Deaf people who trains more than ten people, they had been promoted thanks to the training that they received from the Deaf or Hard of Hearing employees while the Deaf or Hard of Hearing trainers who trained them never got the promote in the entire time while they were working for a certain company or the person which is unfair. We never asks that you gives us your jobs, we never would because it’s just not in us and all we asks is to give us a chance to do the job ourselves to prove that we can do the job but if not then we’d be more than happy to accept being fired and be humble about it. There is over three hundred thousand (300,000) Americans in the United States who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing, barely 1/3 of these people has a job and that says a lot numbers of Deaf or Hard of Hearing struggling to get a job comparing to millions of Americans who easily get a job. Yes, I even keep that in mind that our economy isn’t great since a few years ago but the point is that we have or had to put as twice or triple in efforts to get a job while the hearing people only have or had to put a small efforts in getting the job so you look at the big picture and ask if that’s fair or unfair? The answer is up to you because that answer you have would either make you selfish or not selfish. You are human beings and so are we, isn’t that hard to accept?
I do know that there is no economy power in the Deaf community, there’s a big reason for that which is because of the company or people is not giving us the chance to show them that we can do what they ask. Just because our languages are different, not being able to hear does not mean that we have no brains as several of the people thinks that being Deaf or Hard of Hearing would means that our brains is broken and that’s not even close to true because the hearing is just an organ that is connected to its brain but our learning, knowledge or skills parts in our brains are the same. We have the same capacity of sharpening our skills, learning and such as everyone else in this whole world so it isn’t just here in the United States because regardless our ethnicity we have same capacity in our brains. We have repeats more than ever that just because we hear or speak does not means that we have no motors in our brains or that our brains isn’t damaged as only thing that is damaged is our hearings. By being Deaf or Hard of Hearing does not permanently prevent us from being able to communicate because we do have a way of communication and that is American Sign Language because where we loses hearing we rely on visual more than anything so that is where American Sign Language or in fact any nation’s sign languages such as British Sign Language BSL or French Sign Language FSL.
The bottom line is, we asks for equality and fairness. Slavery is over, LGBT is over, Women not having rights is over, this is 2016 and yet Deaf or Hard of Hearing isn’t even come close to being over or ends the struggles we have since several decades ago. That is why a few organizations, lobbyists or movements such as Deaf Grassroots Movement or Audism Free America have protested or rallied everywhere here in the United States trying to get everybody to understand what they have done to us for several decades which is wrong. We did not ask to be fixed, we do not want to be fixed and we are proud of being Deaf or Hard of Hearing. If we do want to be fixed, then let that be optional and we will ask for one but don’t go around saying something like if we don’t get cochlear implants or hearing aids that we would have shorter term in life or that our brains would get a tumor or some stupid things that people or anti-cultural organizations like Starkey’s Hearing Foundation or Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing have done for several decades although I believe that Starkey’s Hearing Foundation is new but Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has been oppressing us since the year of 1880s. Become an ally in the Deaf community, help us to fight the several battles to end the sufferings and struggles that we have in the Deaf Community everyday against other several anti-cultural organizations, audism, businesses and people but that is what the word “Audism” means. It’s enough, seriously, enough is enough and we have tried to invite others to build a bridge together so that we can be equally.
Here are a few examples of how companies or the people does to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people.
Deaf manager of Auntie Anne’s got fired because she is Deaf after a couple of years under new management by WSMV
Starbucks fired Deaf worker who asked for sign language interpreters by Consumerist
Deaf Defense worker fired for demanding his rights by The Dispatch
Deaf employee complained about interpreters, then fired from a firm by HRMorning
Deaf Discrimination: The Fight for Equality Continues by Huffington Post
EEOC sues Fedex for not accommodating Deaf workers by USAToday
U.P.S. Settles Bias Lawsuit Brought by Deaf Workers by NY Times.
And very long list for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people being denied by their services due to the fact that they are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. So rather to list several lists to articles on Deaf or Hard of Hearing being denied of their services, I am posting one link that will take you to Google’s search engines where it will show you several articles that you can read about this issue.
Deaf Services Denied on Google.com
Thank you very much for all of your time reading this article, sorry that this is more of a rant article than some of other articles that I have written lately but I felt that I need to get this off my chest so I decided that I do so on here in public to give everybody the idea of what we have gone through. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you’d like to talk about this and I hope that all of you have a great day or night whichever it is over where you lives!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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