For Employers

Here are common situations that happen in workplaces everywhere:

• A valued employee begins to lose his/her hearing.
  
  
• A qualified job applicant wears a hearing aid but is able to converse during the interview.  A few questions need repeating.
  
  
• A vocational rehabilitation agency (like DORS) refers a qualified candidate for a current job opening.  The candidate is a college graduate and is deaf.

There are practical, often inexpensive ways to solve these problems. Sometimes, these practical solutions help everyone (hearing or not) to communicate better in the workplace.

Learn more about Workplace solutions for people who are dead or hard of hearing

About deafness and hearing loss

Some individuals are born deaf and have little, if any, speech.  They often rely on sign language and written notes to communicate. 

Other individuals with hearing loss have learned to speak, but converse best in well-lit places where they can see others' faces and where there is less background noise.
 

Still others have lost hearing later in life and rely on a combination of many methods to communicate with others. 

People who are deaf have the same ranges of intelligence as all other people in the population. They also bring to the workplace the same range of education, life experiences and talents as their non-disabled peers.