I am profoundly Deaf since birth, pre-lingual. Faced the barriers all my life and still ongoing.  People still don’t know how to communicate with me and Deaf people, even nowadays.  Even they think we are unintelligent because we are unable to communicate with them.  Everywhere there are lots of audio, such as Tannoy at railway station, telling the passengers of changing the platform for their train, etc. which we would have missed our train, and in supermarket with special offers announced in audio.

Deafness is one of Hidden Disabilities cos no one know I am Deaf until I told them, almost every time, I can see their body language, sort of ‘taken aback’ reaction, which I felt annoy as it is unnecessary because it make me feel different from others.

I was educated in couple of schools for Deaf children, which unfortunately that provide only couple of CSE subjects, Maths and Geography, which I passed with top grades, but managed to get typewriting courses along with IT courses.  I would prefer to go to Mainstream school, mixing with hearing children and take on ALL the CSE/GCSE subjects.

Majority of people didn’t think that I can do the same as others, such as having a job, driving car, etc.  Nothing stop me from trying to ride the motorbike, travelling, doing the sport, having hobbies, having a relationship, etc. to have a full life.

Who or what has helped you the most?

My mother – I was so lucky that she had some experience of meet few Deaf people before I was born, know that I can do anything if I am interesting in.  She let me to live normal life as same as everyone and being there when I need her.  She managed got me to enrol in I.T. operating/programming course linked with the work placement, where I managed to get permanent job afterwards.

Two of my previous line managers, who believed in me and know what I can do.  I was Deaf Advocate, which was my highest peak of my career with excellent support and encouragement from my previous Line manager, who had excellent understanding of Deafness and use British Sign Language to communicate with me.  Another role I was expected not to do but they put me on helpdesk duty and say I can do it with online messenger system with status to let others know that I am on Helpdesk duty and the staff can communicate with me on online instead of using the phone.  I felt valued to able to do this duty.

What advice would you give others about how to support colleagues with health conditions:

Please see your staff/colleagues as a person, not their conditions.  We can provide extra abilities, skills, and experience that other staff don’t have, such as empathy, excellent understanding of a disability/conditions.  For me, I got excellent eye for details and accuracy because I don’t get distracted with sounds and use my eyes more than using the ears.

As Deaf person, I already know how to communicate with anyone, using different methods as I have learned since I was little, lip-reading, British Sign Language, writing down on paper, use smartphone to type, apps – such as Google’s Live Transcribe, Cardzilla (large size font, typing to show what I was trying to say) therefore you don’t need to worry about how to communicate with me.  You need to be more flexible and adapt with the communication methods with your staff/colleagues.

Please never ever assume what we cannot or can, just ask us to see if we can do it with or without the reasonable adjustment because we know our own limitations.

Never say ‘money’ as a reason for unable to provide any reasonable adjustment.  There is Access to Work – www.gov.uk/access-to-work – to provide some reasonable adjustment to enable us to do the work as same as our colleagues.