Onlangs ben ik door de eigenaar van FlexPay, Rob van Maanen benaderd met de vraag of hij mijn blog over Communicatie met dove medewerkers op de werkvloer mocht laten vertalen in het Engels. Hij wil het graag mijn blog delen met mensen in Slovenië, waarmee hij werkt.

Hier ben ik er blij mee met mijn vertaalde blog in het Engels:

Communication with deaf employees in the workplace

Communication is important for everyone to be able to participate in a society, so also for people who are deaf or hearing-impaired. Everyone has their own way of communicating, sometimes with a dialect, a different language or even with sign language. For most deaf people, sign language is their mother tongue and Dutch is their second language. Each deaf person has a unique way in which he/she learned to use sign language and Dutch, depending on when they became deaf and how they grew up.

I would like to explain here how you can best communicate with deaf people and also how to communicate with each other and work together in the workplace. Just like everyone else, deaf people want to work. How often they need to communicate with their hearing colleagues depends on their profession. My own experiences are an important source of information, as they allow me to show how I tackled the communication in the laboratory where I worked.

How do deaf people communicate? And those who are hearing-impaired?

In the deaf community many deaf people communicate with Dutch Sign Language, which has its own rules of grammar. Most deaf people are good at lip-reading and speak the Dutch language, meaning that they cope very well in a hearing society. Nevertheless, misunderstanding or miscommunication can sometimes occur between deaf and hearing people. Deaf people are used to this and know how to deal with this as a matter of course and they respond to hearing people, who often have no experience.

Communication is more difficult for the hearing-impaired. The one group of slightly hearing-impaired are able to hear well with or without hearing aids and so can communicate quite easily with hearing people. The other group of severely hearing-impaired are dependent on their hearing aids and how well they can lipread. Some of these hearing-impaired individuals even need to learn to use sign language as a form of support. In that case, sign language also forms an important part of their further communication, with both deaf and hearing-impaired individuals.

The latter group of severely hearing-impaired individuals in particular finds it very difficult to communicate with hearing individuals, particularly with a noisy background or a group of hearing individuals speaking simultaneously.

What is the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication?

Verbal communication is spoken and written language, so the words, letters and numbers that you use. Non-verbal communication is communication without the use of words, for example by means of signs, eye contact and behaviour. Deaf people use signs a lot, but also mimicry (facial expressions) and body language.

Tips for good communication

Communication between hearing colleagues and deaf employees is essential for a good cooperation. Some good advice for good communication:

• • Always ensure that your face is clearly visible and well lit. Speak clearly with an open mouth (= articulate). Look at the deaf person and speak slowly. During the break, you can ensure that a deaf person feels comfortable and is included by a group of colleagues. It is a good idea for one colleague to act as a buddy to tell the deaf person what the group of colleagues is talking about.
  • When listening, it is important to maintain good eye contact and to concentrate on what someone is saying, not on their voice. If you do not understand the first time, ask him/her to repeat it.
  • Do not become frustrated immediately. Communication can be a bit more difficult to start with. This is very normal and it will become easier over time as you become more used to the person.
  • Understand that a deaf employee will struggle during the first days at work, that it takes time to get used to the work, the communication and the cooperation with hearing colleagues.

Benefits

Deaf people are able to concentrate very well in the workplace, without being distracted by background noise or the chatter of hearing colleagues. Deaf people are visually oriented and will notice things sooner than hearing colleagues. Hearing colleagues can learn a lot from deaf people about how to articulate and communicate clearly and calmly, with a lot of patience.

Disadvantages

Deaf people are unable to lipread the whole time and are often tired at the end of their working day. As a result, they become less effective at lipreading and understanding what their hearing colleagues are saying. In a work meeting, deaf people are at risk of missing a large part of the information if they do not have a sign language interpreter with them, meaning that they are not always up to date about the developments in the workplace.

Fortunately there are many technical innovations nowadays to assist in communication: e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp, Skype. It is also possible to use a telephone interpreter during a telephone conversation, allowing deaf and hearing-impaired individuals to call hearing people.

My communication experiences in the laboratory

During my first internship with Reade at the laboratory in Amsterdam, a major challenge that I faced was learning to communicate, cooperate and perform research. This was very tiring to begin with, due to all the information and impressions that I received. My educational supervisor and colleagues were very patient, understanding and helpful, which meant that the cooperation and communication soon improved. I felt completely at home and accepted, which facilitated my further development and cooperation in the laboratory. Both my colleagues and I learnt a lot from each other about how we can ensure good communication.

The most challenging thing for me was collecting blood samples from patients: How can you talk and lipread whilst taking a blood sample? How can I make sure that patients feel at ease with me as a deaf lab technician? Together with my educational supervisor, we came up with some great solutions: We hung up a poster in the waiting room with my photograph and information about my deafness. It said: ‘Hello, I am Claire. I am doing my internship here. As I am deaf, I would like to ask you to look at me when speaking to me, because I am very good at lipreading.’

Fortunately things often worked out well and patients were very positive and friendly. They are mainly curious about who I was and whether I was good at taking blood samples. On a few occasions a patient did refuse to allow me to take a blood sample, because they were to scared as a result of my deafness, or because they were scared of the blood sample collection.

It is a matter of being patient, showing your understanding and asking someone to repeat themselves if necessary. I often checked with colleagues, to ask them one more time if I had understood things correctly. These colleagues were then either able to confirm things, or repeat something if I did not understand what was said. This prevented any further misunderstanding, which could have resulted in (unpleasant) consequences.

I always had to try really hard to communicate during my other jobs in the laboratory. This is why I asked lots of questions and remained alert in my work environment. It was sometimes tiring to have to communicate constantly. If I had spent the morning collecting blood samples, then I was less efficient at lipreading, because it was so tiring! At times like that I really needed a good break to recover. In effect, I had to work twice as hard.

Conclusion

My opinion is that deaf and hearing-impaired individuals should have access to opportunities in the employment market, because they also have a right to a good, interesting job. In addition to this, they want to work and can learn quickly in the workplace about cooperation and communication. It always takes some time for deaf or hearing-impaired people and their hearing colleagues to get used to each other. They usually get there in the end.

Every deaf person has his own way of communicating and the employers and hearing colleagues need to learn how best to communicate with each individual deaf person. Give deaf people a chance to work together on good communication. Most hearing people will then learn from the deaf that things are not always self-evident and they will learn how deaf people live in a hearing society.

During my previous jobs as a medical lab technician, I was reasonably well understood and was able to chat with colleagues and patients. If necessary, I would write things down. My communication with my colleagues was usually good. If there was any misunderstanding, we always discussed this together and resolved the matter.

In my current job with “Werkpad” I tend to use sign language more. It is quite nice to be able to communicate well with your colleagues and manager who use sign language! Werkpad is an expertise organisation that is specialised in supporting people with auditory/visual disabilities to find and obtain work.

In general, I speak the Dutch language with supporting sign language (NmG), because this is how I was raised. It is an advantage to me that I am married to a hearing man and that he helps me to learn to speak clearly. My husband will tell me if I pronounce a certain word incorrectly. This helps me to learn to pronounce it correctly. Fortunately my husband is also able to use sign language, which comes in handy when I am too tired to lipread!