So let me tell you something about finding employment,
like, mainstream 9-5 employment.
when you're disabled- it's hard, and it's so much harder
than abled people going out and finding a job, which is hard.
It's already hard enough for abled people to find a job, especially now,
in 2023.
It's so hard. For how hard it is for you all to find a job, times
that by... I mean, double, triple it, even.
And yes, even though we do have the ADA, also known as the Americans
with Disabilities Act, it's not really enforced, to be quite frank.
It's really not as enforced as everybody seems to think that it is.
Too many loopholes. Easy work arounds.
It needs to be updated.
And as someone who spent so many years after high school
applying to the most basic of basic jobs and getting denied for either
one, a lack of experience or two, very likely being deaf and thus being forced,
if you will, into self-employment, which is extremely hard.
I don't make a lot of money. It's overall just a real big pain,
right?
And so here we are with a news article from February
about a deaf woman being fired
because she's deaf, which is very common.
Actually, I would say it is more common to be rejected
first for being deaf rather than being fired for being deaf.
But- "Woman gets hired for job, then position is pulled because she's deaf,
lawsuit says," "A woman hired to work at a warehouse learned
the position was pulled days
after she was supposed to start. A national staffing agency
canceled the position for her because she's deaf-
even though the e-commerce retailer, which runs the warehouse,
had fully accepted her as an employee at their warehouse in Maryland,"
and this is all being told via a lawsuit that was filed by the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "Preventing the woman, who primarily uses
sign language to communicate,
from working at the warehouse, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act."
I feel like we're starting from the end of it all
and then going backward, because already we are learning
that there was a settlement and the settlement was of almost $120,000.
"We will take action when a hiring official chooses to believe that deafness alone
negates all other applicant's skills, abilities, and positive attributes.
This is especially true when the discrimination
comes from staffing agencies,
as they play a significant role in referring persons
for employment in the labor market."
Yeah, there's going to be
a lot of people out there that think that deaf people aren't going to be able to do jobs,
not even the simplest of jobs that don't even actually require
communication with people, like sit down office jobs that literally,
all you're going to be doing is just looking at a computer screen.
You know, it's not like air traffic control that we're talking about here.
"The case dates back to November 2021, when Lyneer Staffing forwarded
the woman's application of Whitebox,
the e-commerce company, according to a complaint filed in court.
The company was told at that point that the woman is deaf."
So some of us
will already write on our applications that we're deaf to get out of the way.
And also because oftentimes if there's going to be a job interview,
the employer is required by law
to book an ASL interpreter, which is also a reason why
people tend to go around like this loophole and be like,
yeah, we're not going to accept you for a job interview because we just
don't feel like you're going to suit us very well.
When, really, it's just because they don't want to pay for an ASL interpreter.
So sometimes we just want to get that information right off the bat
because nobody wants to deal with this, like, beating around the bush thing.
But then you will find some deaf people just don't want to say anything yet
because they don't want to risk being discriminated against
and not having a chance at the job interview.
One option is not really better than the other or worse than the other,
I guess, because you never know what's really going to end up happening
at the end of the day. Both options have had successes.
Both options have had failures.
So you're kind of just going to have to go with what you want to do at that point.
"Whitebox soon accepted her as an employee and she was scheduled
to start working on November 23rd.
However, the day before, a Lyneer Staffing manager told Whitebox
that she had canceled the woman's position because she's deaf," OK, so you were told
that she's deaf.
You knew this. Don't care, let's hire her.
OK, cool.
And then literally next day, like, no, that's bad.
So why did you change your mind?
"The staffing agency proceeded to ignore the woman when she contacted them that day
to confirm her start date at the warehouse."
So you didn't even tell her that she wasn't going to start?
You didn't even tell her that she didn't have the job anymore?
That's messed up.
I mean, it's already messed up, but now it's even more messed up.
"Eight days later, on November 30th, a representative finally responded to a text
the woman had sent
and said that they did
not have sign language interpreters and therefore could not place her."
You don't have the thing, so you get the thing.
Also, we don't need sign language interpreters 24/7.
Usually, they only come at meetings.
You don't need a sign language interpreter at the hip
working in a warehouse.
So if it's for meetings, you don't have the thing,
you get the thing, and you are legally required by law to get the thing.
"Meanwhile, the woman was fully qualified
to do the job. She experienced emotional pain, embarrassment,
lost wages and more as a result of the job getting pulled."
I mean, because it is already so hard to find a job and to find a good job at that.
Something stable,
something that is guaranteed to give you a paycheck, not like self-employment,
where you literally it just- it's like playing the lottery.
You don't know how much you're going to get.
My Patreon goes up and down.
Sometimes, I have more clients on a day.
Sometimes, I don't.
Sometimes, my YouTube videos actually make more than $3 per video for once.
Most of the time, they don't.
So when you finally get accepted for something that's supposed to be stable,
so you're not as stressed as, say, a self-employed disabled person
with their own business, and having that pulled away, taken away from you,
that's going to hurt.
That is going to be embarrassing.
And it just really kicks you down and really hurts your self-esteem.
"As part of the lawsuit settlement, Lyneer Staffing will adopt a new policy
to ensure its deaf applicants will have access to sign language interpreters."
That's called the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But hey, go have that new policy.
I mean, cool. Go have it.
I'm just, I just think it's funny that it's like we're going to have this
brand new policy when it's like you've had a policy since 1990.
But OK. It's 30 years old. I'm not knocking it.
I'm not knocking it completely.
I'm just picking on it a little bit.
It's just funny to me, it's just funny.
"Additionally, managers will be trained
on reasonable accommodations and deaf communication."
I'm curious to know what the reasonable accommodations are,
because funny enough, I'm going through that same thing with my future landlord
about reasonable accommodations for my new apartment, for my first apartment.
So I'm curious
about these reasonable accommodations are and about this deaf communication part,
which I'm assuming is going to be the sign language interpreters
for meetings and stuff.
And then like your everyday,
like, visual hand gestures, writing down, typing, things like that.
People seem to think
that having to communicate with deaf people is so, so hard when it's not.
And hearing people have a tendency
to make it much more complicated than it actually needs to be.
And so things end up taking way longer, become more frustrating, or never end up
coming to a conclusion because they get so frustrated,
even though, like, we'll be sitting here telling them this is how to do it,
And that's it, done. Easy.
But then they want to like kind of butt heads a little bit.
So it doesn't really work out.
That is what adds on to the complications of being a deaf person
in society, in a hearing society and the ableism and whatever.
That makes it more complicated.
It's not us, I swear. "Lyneer Staffing will also keep the EEOC informed
on how it deals with possible future disability discrimination complaints."
Don't discriminate.
Here's one about a deaf woman who
wins a settlement from a hospital that refused to hire her in Minnesota.
"Deaf woman wins $180,000 settlement from hospital that refused to hire her."
"A deaf Minnesota woman has won a $180,000 settlement
from a hospital that denied her a job as a greeter,
telling her that pandemic masking rules would impede
her ability to lip read." So mask wearing does make lip
reading essentially impossible because, well, you can't see anything.
So therefore you cannot lipread somebody wearing a mask. That part is
right.
However, there are masks with translucent windows and other masks
that are even more translucent than the ones with little windows.
I'm just saying.
So that was always a solution.
Granted, not a whole lot of people know about that.
So, hey, I'm just telling you now..
"Kayla, 26, of Maple Grove claimed in a federal lawsuit
against North Memorial Health that she was qualified for the job
she applied for in 2020 at a hospital in Robbinsdale.
Her duties would have included greeting visitors, enforcing COVID-19
masking policies, giving directions and keeping the area neat."
OK, so my question is, is she greeting them and like checking them in
or is it just hello, you know, like Walmart greeters or something?
I mean, it's not going to be difficult to greet people.
It's not going to be difficult
to enforce mask policies or at least tell people to wear a mask.
Giving directions
wouldn't be difficult at all because that would be me telling you
how to get somewhere,
not you're telling me how to get somewhere and keeping the area neat.
I mean, that's not difficult.
That doesn't require your ears.
Especially that last part, that last part does not require using your ears.
"She said in a filing that she wears hearing aids that permit her to hear
people speaking without any difficulty.
She can communicate verbally and can also communicate with American
Sign Language."
What superpowers do you have, Kayla, that you can hear people
with your hearing aids without any difficulty
and they're wearing a mask? Because I also wear hearing aids
and sometimes, very, very rarely, I can hear and understand people. With hearing aids
in, if somebody is wearing a mask, I can typically hear that
they are talking.
But the understanding part is a lot more different.
It's a lot more different
and it's a lot more complicated and a little more impossible.
Now, I am not saying that she's lying and that she cannot understand these people,
but how do you do it?
Because I cannot.
"North Memorial reportedly cited the pandemic related challenges
faced by greeters, who needed strong listening and verbal communication
skills while interacting with individuals experiencing stress and grief."
But if you're just greeting somebody, does it really have to be that complicated?
That's a genuine question.
How much of her job is,
how much more than just simply greeting someone
is her job? "Greeters needed to communicate quickly
and succinctly with visitors regarding visitor policy, assess their visitors' understanding
and compliance and troubleshoot while communication
was significantly hindered by COVID-necessitated face masks."
So that answered my question. Ask and yee shall receive.
I mean, hearing
people were already having trouble communicating with masks on, right?
I don't know, I don't know how many hearing people were
constantly asking me to repeat myself and watching hearing people ask others
to repeat themselves
because they can't hear somebody
very well with the mask on, sounds muffled, et cetera.
I mean, if this is all a concern,
why not do a test run with this woman,
I guess? If you're really that concerned that
she's not going to be able to understand people, do a test run.
Also, technology is decent at this point where there's a lot of accessibility
options with phones, with, you know, live captioning apps and things like that.
"On Thursday, they reached a consent decree for a settlement in U.S.
District Court in Minneapolis,
meaning the hospital system makes no admission of wrongdoing,
but agrees to shell out the money and take other actions to address
rights protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act."
I'm not surprised that the hospital is not going to admit to any wrongdoings
because the medical industry is probably one of the more frustrating
industries to just deal with.
Job wise, visiting wise, anything wise.
So I'm not shocked by that.
"Unfortunately, some employers continue to discriminate against deaf applicants
based on myths, fears and stereotypes about their ability
to do the job because of their disability," which is true.
I mean, I'm going to be upfront here.
Me working in a hospital with that kind of job,
I would not personally apply for that job because I know straight up
that I'm not going to be able to understand people with masks on.
I can't understand them before hearing aids.
I definitely still can't understand them with them on.
I've only been able to understand really one person
consistently with a mask on.
And I want to say that's because he purposely made himself louder
like the whole time. I mean, there are times
when there are bits and pieces of things that I understand.
I mean, I went to the hospital at the beginning of the year
because I had a stroke. I had symptoms of a stroke.
I don't know. That whole thing is complicated.
There's a video on it, by the way, and a lot of the time when the nurses,
and the doctors, and all the people that were coming in
would be trying to talk to me with their mask on.
And I had my hearing aids in, half the time I wasn't understanding
what the heck they were saying.
And that's a whole different rant for another day, which was already covered
in that previous video, if you want to go take a look at that.
So I personally would not be applying for this job.
You would not
want to hire me personally for this job.
But Kayla, if she's got the experience, I'm say- do a test run.
I guess. I feel like maybe there's a better word for that than test run.
I mean, if she's telling you that she has a very good track record
of hearing and understanding people with her hearing aids on, test
that. This is probably the only time you will hear or see me say test
somebody's hearing, what they're hearing.
Normally, I would say don't do that.
You know, don't cover your mouth and do all that, you know, whatever.
But for something like this, I guess that sounds OK to do
because she's like, I can do this.
Let me prove it to you.
I don't know.
Does that sound too bizarre to suggest? I don't know.
"We recognize that our hiring processes in place for temporary roles
may have been compromised during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,
and we understand her disappointment
in the decisions that were made at the time," For temporary roles.
So it was a temporary job?
I don't know what my question is with that, but I don't know.
Something about them
saying it's a temporary role.
So it's a new role.
I don't know. "It added it has reviewed specific practices following this case
and will continue to strive to ensure our customers, our current, past
and future team members and our providers feel valued and respected.
Under the two year term of the decree, the hospital system must apply
its disability anti-discrimination and reasonable accommodation
policies to all applicants and provide training to staffers involved in hiring."
Once again, that policy is the ADA.
Maybe that's what it's talking about, not just some sort of separate
hospital policy, but that policy is already the ADA.
"After I self-identified as an individual with deafness and requested
a reasonable accommodation, I was fired instantly
without their further attempt to work with me.
Ultimately, it affected my career choices and how I navigate the world."
If you were fired instantly,
had you already been hired like the previous person?
I want to know what the accommodations were.
One of them was obviously probably going to be an ASL interpreter,
but what were the other accommodations and for when?
But I don't think she's going to say. For this story in particular, for the-
for the latter, for the hospital, that's a little bit more complicated
just because I feel like there's more that I-
there's more information that I want to know about.
And you could probably find it in other articles, maybe.
But that one seemed pretty lengthy to begin with.
So I don't know.
There's some things that I just- if you are simply a greeter saying hi, hello,
and you're going to let them know that they need to wear a mask,
keep the area clean, how does that make it a no?
I mean, listen, you know, we have deaf doctors about, right?
I know
on Instagram, I want to say maybe TikTok,
she might be on, it might be the same doctor on both TikTok and Instagram.
Deaf, she's a doctor.
I think she's working at hospitals, even, so.
And that's a much more complicated job. To be a greeter,
and if you understand people with your hearing aids, you know, like...
Also, aren't hospitals now like saying that you don't need to wear a mask anymore?
So there's that.
I don't know.
That was a bit more mind boggling to me.
It makes me think a little bit more.
And I'm not sure where I am on that.
Just let her do a test, I guess, jeez. But anyway, yes.
So they settled that. The hospital said we didn't do anything wrong, but
we're tired of this.
We don't want to deal with this anymore.
So just take the money and like, go away. Again,
I'm not surprised by that, but.
OK, but
hey, if you got an opinion on the matter, that's what the comment box is for.
So you can leave your comment down below.
Any experiences if you have similar experiences.
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