The Deaf Decry Discrimination In Employment

Profoundly Deaf people and Hearing Impaired persons are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired.

New Vision share an article by Cecilia Okoth: "We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired, potential employers consider our disability over our qualifications and ability to deliver on jobs." The Deaf are concerned that the job market is not fair to them a move they say has worsened their predicament.

"We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Potential employers consider our disability over our qualifications and ability to deliver on jobs," Ambrose Murangira, Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) executive director, said.

According to Murangira, the lack of a policy by public service ministry to promote employment for marginalized groups makes it worse for people living with disabilities (PWDs) to get and retain any form of employment.

"We have been relegated to working in Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) and in the informal sector because the chances of getting employed in the public service and mainstream organisations are very limited," he added.

Murangira, also a Deaf and Disability scholar was speaking at a press briefing that was attended by 20 representatives of Deaf graduates sponsored by UNAD at National Theatre early this week.

"This is double jeopardy for us because to study and graduate as a Deaf person means overcoming great odds only to be shunned by the job market," said Rogers Kadoma, one of the graduates.

According to the 2014 census, there are 1.083,456 Deaf persons in the country. However scanty information shows that around 1% are in formal employment.

Doreen Sandra Kauma the gender and vulnerable groups' coordinator at UNAD said without affirmative action, more employers will not feel a sense of obligation to employ the deaf and PWDs as a whole.

A recent Disability Rights Coalition report suggests that employees with disabilities should at all times not be less than 5% for private employers and 10% for the public service.

However the labour market in Uganda presents multiple hurdles for the deaf and PWDs to overcome if they are to be absorbed in the job market. These range from physical access, access to information about vacancies, and self-confidence of PWDs to seek out opportunities because of the unique challenges and what society perceives them as... Read More at New Vision.

SOURCE - News Vision

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First Deaf Canadian Iron Worker With Certificate

Winnipeg iron worker receives red seal certificate in Canada.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Jonathon Anderson is a qualified tradesman. At 26 years of age, he's the first Deaf Canadian iron worker with a red seal certificate.

The national designation lets qualified tradespeople use their skills anywhere in the country, something Anderson said he’s very proud of.

“I'm very happy to be doing what I am doing,” Anderson explained using American Sign Language. “I love my job."

Anderson was diagnosed as Deaf shortly after his first birthday, when his parents noticed he was sleeping through loud noises.

His parents said he never let his hearing impairment get in the way of what he wanted to do.

“He learned to adapt, he couldn't hear but he always had his way of communicating," his mother Bertha Anderson said.

Growing up in Winnipeg, Anderson attended the Manitoba School for the Deaf and St.James Collegiate.

According to his mother, Anderson played hockey and football with the help of an interpreter and by finding unique ways to communicate with his teammates.

“The coaches would often write on the white board to help with the communication,” she said.

Anderson attended Red River College where he earned his iron working qualifications.

Last spring he took his red seal examination and passed.

On Sunday family, friends and mentors gathered at Union Centre to celebrate Anderson’s achievement.

Throughout his career Anderson has worked across the country, but his most significant job was at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

It’s the building he is most proud to have helped build.

"My parents will say my son helped build that building and my sons will say daddy worked there," he explained.

Anderson has also worked on many other buildings in the city, including the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg, University of Manitoba and True North Square.

He hopes what he has accomplished will inspire youth who also live with a hearing impairment to chase their dreams.

"I want to show people that Deaf people can work with people who are not Deaf," Anderson said.

“You can succeed and prove them wrong if they say you can’t, show them that you can."

SOURCE - CTV News

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McDonald's Refuses Interview Deaf Applicant

McDonald's pays up $56,000 to the EEOC after manager refuses to interview Deaf applicant in Missouri.

BELTON, MO -- (AP) McDonald's will pay a $56,500 settlement after a southeast Missouri restaurant manager refused to interview a Deaf job applicant.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday announced the settlement with McDonald's Corp. and McDonald's Restaurants. A message seeking comment from the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company was not immediately returned.

The EEOC says a young man who can't hear or speak applied online in 2012 to work at the McDonald's in Belton, Mo. He had previous experience as a cook and cleanup team member at a McDonald's restaurant in another state.

A lawsuit filed by the EEOC says that when the restaurant manager learned the applicant needed a sign language interpreter for his interview, she canceled the interview, even though the applicant's sister volunteered to interpret.

SOURCE - ChicagoTribune

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Football League Hires First Deaf Head Coach

Deaf News: Football league hires first Deaf head coach in Riverside, Ca.

RIVERSIDE, CA -- Marcus Chmaj is an expressive football coach. To get his point across, he gets close. He crouches. He grimaces. The boys, all 7 or 8 years old, stand attentive, watching his every move.

The boys watch him closely because they can’t hear him speak. That’s because Chmaj can neither speak nor hear. “I use a lot of body language and gesturing,” Chmaj says through a sign language interpreter. “They pick it up faster that way.”

Chmaj, pronounced “Sshmahj,” is the first Deaf head coach in the history of Riverside’s Orangecrest Junior All-American League.

The league first reached out to the Deaf community a few years ago, said league President Danny Cisneros, to “bridge the gap” between those who can hear and those who can’t.

Now team rosters include about a dozen deaf players, two of whom play on Chmaj’s team and one of whom is Chmaj’s son Donovan, 7.

Sometimes Chmaj, 35, communicates by writing in a notepad or typing into a note-taking app. Occasionally Aaron Chase Molina-Milbourne, 24, a Riverside City College sign language student, volunteers as translator.

In ten years of coaching football, basketball and soccer, mostly at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, this is Chmaj’s first time at the helm of a hearing team... Read The Full Story.

DeaFined - Canada's New Deaf Restaurant

WATCH: Deafined Breaks Down Barriers - Vancouver’s First ‘Deaf Restaurant’ Teaches Diners To Order in American Sign Language.

VANCOUVER, BC -- A new Vancouver restaurant is encouraging diners to order with their hands - DeaFined, opening May 7 on West 4th Avenue near Vine Street in Kitsilano, is staffed entirely by Deaf and Hard of Hearing servers. Among the first of its kind in Canada, the Eastern Mediterranean restaurant asks customers to order food and drinks using American Sign Language.

For those who don’t know how to sign, there’s no need to fret. “There’s a cheat sheet on the table with the menu,” said owner Moe Alameddine. “The server comes up to take the order, and the fun part starts there.”

RELATED - Dal's Poke - Canada's New Deaf Restaurant

In the mood for steak? Grab the fleshy part of your left hand with the index finger and thumb of your right hand, and wiggle a bit as if getting a good grip on the meat. How about salad? Use both hands and picture yourself tossing some greens.

When customers arrive at the DeaFined, a hearing host or hostess greets them and acts as an interpreter while they introduce the server.

Alameddine came up with the idea after starting his popular blind-dining restaurant O.Noir in Montreal and Toronto and Dark Table in Vancouver, where guests dine in complete darkness while they are served by visually impaired staff. The concept aims to give customers a taste, albeit briefly, of what it’s like to be blind.

Although the business helped provide jobs for Blind people, Alameddine said he realized a need for employment opportunities to benefit the Deaf community.

Only two other North American establishments - Signs Restaurant in Toronto, which hires mostly Deaf servers, and Mozzeria, a pizza restaurant in San Francisco, which has a Deaf owner and staff have a focus on hiring Deaf staff... Read The Full Story.

Follow @DeaFineRestaurant:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/DeaFinedVan
Official site - http://www.deafined.ca
Job Seekers - Job Openings

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New York City’s First Deaf Taxi Drivers

Interviews: Meet one of New York City’s first Deaf uber drivers.

NEW YORK CITY -- Pin Lu was an accountant before ferrying passengers; ‘Deaf people are good drivers because they focus and pay attention’ Many initially convey surprise or concern when they discover he can’t hear, but he said being Deaf gives him an advantage in honk-filled. In many ways, he is a typical UberX driver.

He uses his own car, complete with a crocheted owl dangling from the rearview mirror, to ferry passengers who hail him via the popular ride-sharing app.

He often works long hours, saving to start his own business someday. And he takes pride in his user ratings, saying he has earned 4.82 out of a possible 5 stars. But when New Yorkers step into Mr. Lu’s green 2011 Honda Accord, many are surprised to be handed a note asking them to type a destination into the GPS.

Mr. Lu, the note explains, is Deaf.

“Let me know if you have a preferred route by using your hand motion as direction,” it reads. “If you have any questions, knock your hand to my shoulder. Write/type note to me as communication.”

Uber Technologies Inc. estimates it has about 40 Deaf “driver-partners” across the U.S. and predicts that number is likely to grow as the company expands into new markets.

Mr. Lu, a spokeswoman said, is one of its first in the New York area.

Mr. Lu, 29 years old, was born without hearing in Fuzhou, China, and immigrated to Queens, New York with his family when he was 10.

After earning an accounting degree from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2011, he spent about two years doing accounting work for the Defense Department in Rome, N.Y., but he grew tired of small-town life “in the middle of nowhere,” he says.

Mr. Lu moved back to the New York area and switched paths, becoming a driver for Uber and occasionally for its competitor Lyft, earning his Taxi and Limousine Commission license in July.

Most weeks, he said, he now spends five to seven days a week seven to 10 hours a day behind the wheel.

Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing people in New York can get a driver's license with a restriction specifying they need a hearing aid or a full-view rearview mirror, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

“If I can do it, so can you.” Larry is Deaf and on a mission to follow his dreams. Find out how partnering with Uber made it possible for him to move to LA and support his family while starting a new career.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission doesn’t register or track the disabilities of its licensees, a representative said... Read The Full Story.

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5 Stars Hotel With 30% of Deaf Employees

Hotel sets trend by employing highest number of Deaf people in Cape Town, South Africa.

CAPE TOWN -- A new Cape Town hotel has been making headlines for all the right reasons lately by exposing guests to the world and life of Deaf people.

The Newlands based Park Inn hotel has a staff compliment where 30% of the employees are completely or partially Deaf. It's believed the hotel has the highest compliment of Deaf employees in the world.

From the outside it paints the picture of a modest hotel, but guests are pleasantly surprised when they are welcomed in sign language. Employees in many of the departments are Deaf but are not hampered by their disability when dealing with clients.

"Communication with guests is very important for some of us. It's very difficult without hearing aid so we try to do written communication, but for me I have hearing aid and I also train myself to try and speak clearly so to greet them and when guests see my I am Deaf badge, guests are very accommodating and their attitudes gradually change.

Guests at the hotel have praised their work. "My experience is absolutely wonderful and this hotel is a role model of employment equity. They are very good at lip reading," says hotel guest, Cheryl Harper.

Deaf SA has urged the importance of having Deaf community gain access to the working environment. "As you know the South Africa unemployment rate is so high especially in the Deaf community. Access to employment for Deaf people is so important,” says Bruno Druchen from Deaf SA.

The hotel opened its doors in December and has a full time sign language interpreter on site. Cape Town hotel sets trend by employing highest number of Deaf people.

SOURCE

Deaf Homeless Man In Compassionate Gesture

Deaf homeless man touched by Winnipeggers' generosity.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- A Deaf, homeless man working hard to find a job in Winnipeg has been moved by the generosity of Winnipeggers.

Kevin Adams, 38, was randomly handing out his resume in a McPhillips Street parking lot last week, hoping someone could help him find a job.

To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.

That's when he met Jennifer Martens and her husband. The couple took his resume and posted it on Facebook to spread the word. In just hours, it prompted dozens of comments and thousands of shares.

"I am so proud to be a Winnipegger, knowing that people have openly embraced this man and want to help him get back on his feet. It just warms my heart," Jennifer Martens said.

While the Facebook posting resulted in a few job offers, it turns out that Adams' own efforts paid off. He found a job as a painter and starts Tuesday.

Now Adams is composing a letter to thank Winnipeggers for reaching out to him...

Read The Full Story.

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Deaf People DO Have Interesting Jobs!

The short preview highlights of Deaf people in professional occupations.

The viewer will get a short but honest impression of Deaf people doing a variety of jobs. It is hoped that this will provide young Deaf people with a perspective on the types of work they can do in the future. Deaf people can do anything except hear!

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Deaf People Grateful For Steve Jobs' Creations

Apple gadgets help Deaf community to communicate.

ROCHESTER, New York -- The RIT/NTID college students have grown up with cell phones in their hands, but for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing cell phones and other text-based gadgets have provided another way to communicate. For students at NTID, using an Apple iPad and iPhone have changed their lives.

iPod Shuffle Commercial With Sign Language:

Ipod Shuffle commercial with American Sign Language (ASL), demonstrating hands free operation. (Imagine iPod Shuffle attached to beltloop).

SOURCE

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