FEATURE
…the many deaf related projects that I am involved with, and my participation in Defra’s four year Into-Leadership Development Programme, and the excellent training provided by Defra (who also provided me with BSL interpreters), has helped me to develop those interpersonal skills.
Many members of the deaf community do not see themselves as having a disability, but rather seeing themselves as members of a cultural and linguistic minority.
to travel to meet each other and the fewer opportunities that we have to meet through deaf events throughout the country, and we cannot always attend local hearing clubs. Moreover, the many deaf related projects that I am involved with, and my participation in Defra’s four year Into-Leadership Development Programme, and the excellent training provided by Defra (who also provided me with BSL interpreters), has helped me to develop those interpersonal skills. Paddy Ladd, a Deaf senior lecturer at the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Bristol has written extensive publications and articles about deaf culture in relation to the Social Model of Disability including Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood (2003) which extends the points raised in this article. The social model of disability identifies systematic barriers, negative attitudes and exclusion by society on the grounds that society is the main contributory factor in disabling people. Under this model, any attempts to ‘fix’ or ‘cure’ individuals used against the wishes of the individual in order to conform with the social norms of the dominant society can be discriminatory and prejudiced. In view of the cultural and linguistic differences between the different groups, many of my deaf peers have questioned how they are able to demonstrate similar competencies to their hearing colleagues at recruitment interviews. The effect of having a profound hearing loss poses many challenges in being able to access the same experiences as hearing people. I remember when a deaf person and an equivalent hearing person were in two very similar situations of participating in a stakeholder discussion. As a result of not being fully able to participate in the discussion without a British Sign Language Interpreter, the quality of the experience that the deaf person had was not the same as that experienced by the hearing person. The effect of this potential inequality meant that despite the deaf person having had a wider range of work related experiences, the hearing person was promoted because she was able to describe her better quality experience at interview. In the workplace, many of my peers have noticed that colleagues seem to develop a set of specific hidden cultural behaviours expected of that particular organisation, which they do not seem to be able to access through not being able to hear background office conversations or from limited communication opportunities with their hearing peers. As a result, they wonder whether there is a set of informal cultural behaviours that are endemic to each organisation that is different to the competency-based theories explained in the literature.
Like my peers, throughout university, I have made every opportunity to develop the relevant competencies through potential participation in business and political societies such as the Model United Nations and Student Industrial Society, only to be limited in our participation through a lack of accessible communication in British Sign Language. Many times, I have wondered how deaf graduates would be able to develop the relevant competencies through participation in those societies in order to effectively compete against their hearing peers at many graduate recruitment centres. Personally, I had tried to take part in as much as possible, only for my participation to be limited by my disability. Consequently, I had to rely on my deaf peers to develop those interpersonal skills that graduate employers so desperately require, which is not the same as the surrounding hearing environment. As a result, our personal development pathway is not the same as for hearing peers, which in a highly competitive recruitment environment can be particularly critical. I have yet to notice any management training courses
provided by private companies and Universities to develop the competencies defined by the Learning and Development section of the Human Resources Profession to take into account our unique culture and language, let alone run accessible courses in British Sign Language. A search of the Chartered Institute of Personal Development and Association of Graduate Recruiters’ website has not revealed anything that is accessible and could be used to develop the next generation of deaf graduates. I would like to work closely with graduate recruiters
in order to enable members of the deaf community to develop the softer skills that graduate recruiters require. As a result, I propose to establish a deaf management training company to implement the assessment methods used for graduate schemes, and run training courses to develop those essential skills for deaf graduates to survive in such a competitive environment where their hearing peers have an advantage. I have not yet seen any of the graduate recruiters providing career fairs or recruitment activities at locations that would be accessed by members of the Deaf Community such as at the numerous Deaf Clubs throughout the country or through organisations such as the Deaf Professionals Network, Deaf Unity, and the British Deaf Association.
Follow Alasdair Grant’s blog at :
http://www.grantal.freeserve.co.uk/DeafSmartManagement/Blog/.
GRADUATE RECRUITER 13
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