Working effectively & inclusively with your Deaf and Hard of Hearing colleagues

Tips for working effectively & inclusively with your Deaf and Hard of Hearing colleagues at TTS:

• Ask the Deaf person you’re working with what is most helpful to them in terms of communication approaches.
• Share agendas and meeting materials ahead of time whenever possible.
• Recognize that it may be difficult or impossible for a Deaf colleague to multi-task during a meeting. Asking them to look at a document is asking them to shift attention away from interpreter or captions and reduces their ability to participate in the conversation.
• Chatter on calls is hard to participate in and hard for interpreters to parse — make room for pauses.
• On video calls, use the hand raise feature to minimize people speaking over each other, which is difficult for interpreters to relay.
• Practice ASL. Signing and/or spelling shows you are making an effort.
• Facial expressions, body language, and the chat are all non-verbal ways to add context and color to the meeting conversation — use them!
• When working with Deaf and/or Hard of Hearing colleagues, don’t focus on what they are (Deaf), focus on who they are.