My brother was born pre-maturely and was IIRC diagnosed in the early 60’s as 60% deaf. We grew up in crappy little farm towns and there was a little bit of government services but not much. He wore one hearing aid up until 19. When he was 19, my brother was “healed” in a fundamental Christian church and had “normal” hearing circa 1980. I grew up with the guy, he’s got hearing challenges and the only post-healing difference I noticed was he was a little better about saying “pardon me, please repeat what you said.”
I have an autistic daughter. Based on what I know now, I think my brother has more challenges that just being 60% deaf and growing up with pitiful intervention services in the 60’s and 70’s. That’s neither here nor there, but some back story may be useful.
I saw him for the first time in a decade or so last Christmas. I was completely gobsmacked when he told one of my daughters “you have to speak up and speak slowly because I’m partially deaf.”
He’s now 50. Had 5-10 year job stints with some real IT/PC/Network experience. He got downsized 1 year ago with a modest severance package. Relocated to the Denver area and for the past 4 months was working and got laid off. Needless to say, he’s just scraping by.
I think his job prospects would be greatly improved if he is offically certified as hearing impaired, and be considered handicapped under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
How would/should someone who probably has no childhood records go about getting certified now as offically hearing impaired? I guess it’s probably as staightforward as seeing an audiologist, getting testing, having his tested hearing certified as falling within whatever federal guidlines there are, and thus “officially” diagnosed. Follow up question is if you know of any potential benefits or programs that he could apply for?
First of all, the ADA doesn’t determine a person’s handicap eligiblity. That is something only a doctor can diagnose. Your brother needs to see a doctor.
One question, if you’ve always known about his problems, why were you “gobsmacked” when he informed one of your daughters of his partial deafness?
Gobsmacked because for almost 30 years God had miraculously “healed” his hearing problem. Then he introduced himself to my daughter as being hearing impaired. After having been in denial for about 3 decades, he’s come to recognize that he has a hearing handicap.
So, now that he is self recognized as not being a miracle healing poster child, he’ll probably be more open to becomming offically hearing impaired. As his brother, I think that would be a good thing as he will maybe be able to access some benefits and certainly get a boost to his hiring prospects. And frankly it was a pain in the ass trying to deal with someone so delusional and holding himself up as God’s miracle. And finally, if I’m going to help fill the gaps where the government s afety netis failing to keep people like my brother and his wife off of the streets, then I will also take this opportunity to not only extend some money but also “strongly encourage” him to get diagnosed.
I figure he needs an audiologist to test, and then those results need to fall within whatever ranges are required. Hoping that someone out there has some experience with this and can give some guidance.
There’s no such thing as some kind of ADA qualifying certificate or something. And it’s not necessarily a great idea to walk into a hiring situation and saying “by the way, I’ve got this disability which you’re going to have to accommodate.” And that’s all the ADA will do for him, provide him a legal basis by which to say “here’s my situation, and this is what I need to do this job, and by law you must provide this for because it’s a reasonable accommodation under the law.” Typically for a person with a hearing loss that would be things like a telephone with adjustable volume/hearing aid compatibility, not being required to attend conferences where there isn’t live captioning or a limit to expected participation in multi-person meetings where there’s lots of cross-talk and things get missed – or having someone in meetings like that to take good minutes which are provided ASAP after the fact.
There aren’t really organizations that specifically give jobs to people with disabilities like his. There is no affirmative action scheme in place in any company for hiring PWDs either, despite claims of wanting a diverse workforce and having an accessible workplace, a disability is generally a liability in a job search. It’s just unfortunate but true. Combined with his age, he’s going to be in a tough spot.
First thing first would be to find out if his hearing loss can be treated, now that he’s acknowledging it, if he hasn’t already. Hearing aids can be very pricey, and often aren’t covered by any insurance, but maybe you can help him out with that, or find a charitable organization that will since he’s unemployed. Then he needs to focus on doing everything he can to make himself more employable; improved skills, certifications, etc.
Let me clarify. I’m not asking about how to demand accomodation should he get a job.
At least in my experience in corporate America, and what I “understand” to be true of Fed, State and Local governments, there are definately tickboxes if not outright quotas where there is an incentive to hire the handicapped for some roles. My brother is handicapped and I want him to take advantage of whatever programs there are in place that can help him land a job.
I could be mistaken but think if he applies to a big corporate and let’s them know he has a hearing handicap, then next step might be HR asking for proof. And it’s not like he can hide the fact that something is not quite there. The way he is, whether it is partial deafness or something on top of that, lends me to believe he has quite a challenge in the interview process.
Again, my question is if anyone has relevant knowledge, to please share or point me in the right direction. BTW, Colorado is the state of residence.
There’s Schedule A hiring for government jobs, but that only applies to people with significant mental or physical disabilities, typically those who need specialized training in order to be employable at all. Hearing loss generally wouldn’t fall within that system, especially with a long work history, all accumulated after the disability.
No, the next step is likely him being passed over for hiring in favor of an equally qualified candidate who won’t need accommodations. At best, some states offer tax breaks to small businesses that hire PWD but typically only if they have to make architectural changes to their facilities in order to accommodate the new employee.
Yes, he does, which is why the best bet would be to indicate up front what he’s capable of doing, and what he’d need to do it. But not to go in expecting that there’s some special hiring scheme that’s going to get him a job. There are 30 million Americans with disabilities of one sort or another, to one level or another. In this economy, applications for Social Security Disability are up 50% because of the overwhelming difficulty of being hired in a highly competitive job market. There’s a reason for that.
There are incentive programs, I believe on the state levels mostly giving tax credits and or partial payroll reimbursement for hiring disabled people ( in a state figures its cheaper to pay 25% of their wages than having them on disability/unemployment).
Its still a PITA, and a bunch of extra paperwork and hoops to jump through.