Being a deaf developer
cruft.ioChiming in here - I've got congenital profound loss in both ears, but I have a cochlear implant. I've grown in my career over the last 15 years from junior dev up to my current engineering management role, and what I've observed was:
1) The biggest hurdle in most cases is communication, especially in meetings. That being said, I still do fine in them, because I rely on lip reading as well as vocal cues/context, but I also rely on my coworkers to be understanding from time to time, and they are.
2) Slack has been hugely beneficial to me, but it requires the organization to be engaged with it.
3) I have accented speech because I drop some consonants (f and s sounds mostly), and it can be a challenge for some to clearly understand me shortly after meeting me. This usually resolves itself after 2-3 weeks.
4) Job interviews: I'm always up front about what I can and can't do - this usually comes up around the topic of phone interviews, I can't do them. People appreciate this, and I make it clear that I'm not ashamed or hindered by my disability. The confidence goes a long way. If you come off unsure, then of course others will be unsure. I've definitely had interviews where there was a communication disconnect, but typically that comes along with other circumstances that make the job a poor fit. I've never had the situation where the job/culture/people fit was there but it didn't happen because of a communication issue.
For other deaf developers out there, just own it and show that there is no hurdle out there that you can't overcome, and you will be successful. Always be trying to help others and others will help you in return.
Interesting! I'm in a very similar situation (congenital profound hearing loss, implanted in left ear at 16), but in a country (Japan[1]) where the primary language is not my native language (English).
> The biggest hurdle in most cases is communication, especially in meetings. That being said, I still do fine in them, because I rely on lip reading as well as vocal cues/context, but I also rely on my coworkers to be understanding from time to time, and they are.
I definitely concur with this. Meetings can be a pain depending on the environment (for example, some people prefer to meet in cafes etc. since meeting space is at a premium here). Body language (looking away, looking down, mumbling into hands, hiding face in papers, etc.) can also make meetings incredibly hard. The hardest part for me, personally, is the sheer stamina required to be "always on" and track everyone's eyes to make sure I know who's talking (in a meeting of ~15-20 people) so I can look that way and try to read their lips.
Telephone communication is also a big problem. No matter how often I tell people about my disability or how quickly I respond to e-mails/chats, they will still insist on calling me for "urgent" things. [Edit: Sometimes I think I should deal with this by simply ignoring all phone calls, but practically speaking I'd rather not exacerbate a potential emergency by not responding. The counterargument is that I could exacerbate an emergency by responding and not understanding ~50% of the content of the call...] My theory is that because I'm largely functional in person, they still subconsciously expect me to be able to use a phone normally.
> this usually comes up around the topic of phone interviews, I can't do them. People appreciate this
Interesting. I almost always have the opposite reaction; people try to be accommodating, but it's almost always still focused around doing voice via electronic connections rather than the text format I request. "What if we use a normal telephone? What if we use VoLTE? What if we use Skype instead? What if we get you a headset? What if we use Skype video or Facetime?"
> I've never had the situation where the job/culture/people fit was there but it didn't happen because of a communication issue.
Same here. For me, typically if it's a communication issue, it's because the people/culture weren't interested in being accommodating.
[1] As a side note, Japanese is extremely hard to lip read because it doesn't use the upper lip much, or at all in some dialects. There's also a lot of cultural stuff that makes life difficult: masks (either prevention or because the speaker is sick), the tendency to cover the mouth, and the tendency to not look at other people during meetings or when having a confrontation -- when communication is really important.
My mom is deaf, and my dad nearly so. Something that staggers me is that businesses -- even those that are 100% in the digital age -- can't communicate with a deaf person. I'm talking about health insurance, utilities, etc., where the person on the other end of the phone line is sitting in front of a computer, but has no facility for text chat or e-mail.
It's the smaller businesses, typically low-tech, that seem to accommodate her just fine: "Oh, you're deaf. Here's my e-mail address."
That's exactly my experience, too.
There are a lot of large businesses who refuse to do online chat or e-mail communications and instead do everything through telephone -- I e-mailed Tim Cook to complain once and he forwarded me to a support person who actually handled my case for me via e-mail, which I appreciated.
>Telephone communication is also a big problem. No matter how often I tell people about my disability or how quickly I respond to e-mails/chats, they will still insist on calling me for "urgent" things. My theory is that because I'm largely functional in person, they still subconsciously expect me to be able to use a phone normally.
Yeah, I'm with you on this. People forget! We also get so good at lip-reading and making the right faces at the right moments that people think it's not as bad as it is. FWIW I did start just ignoring the phone, and then when the peevish emails come in saying "I'm trying to phone you!" I remind them that I'm deaf, and they're gonna have to outline the problem in writing.
I said this in the article, and it bears saying again: adjustments can always be made. If somebody needs to get hold of me quickly, they can ping me on Slack. They can send me a message on Google Hangouts. They can Skype me! There's lots of options. They go for the phone because that's what they're used to, but it's totally possible to train people out of this. It's not just for your comfort, it's to make it possible for you to do your job effectively.
I've had to be kinda pushy about this sometimes, but I don't regret sticking to my guns. I used to just roll over and it made everything more difficult and unpleasant as a result.
Edit: just saw your post below about big businesses refusing to allow IM. That would make things... awkward. Here in the UK employers are required by law to make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled employees ("reasonable" meaning reasonable to the employee and to the employer), and a big company would struggle to get away with that over here. I think it's called "reasonable accommodations" in the US? My first port of call would definitely be to go and see HR and wave the relevant legislation under their noses, if it exists in Japan.
Totally agree about the phone thing. At my last job, I set up a meeting with HR and explained the situation, and within 24 hours, the entire 2000+ company had a new rule about email vs phone calls. There were still a lot of calls, but none of them came to me. I'm not entirely sure how they pulled that off, because the rule didn't mention me by name, but it worked out great.
I would 100000x rather text, Slack, or meet 1:1 than do a phone call.
That said, in the last year or so I got a hearing aid with Bluetooth capabilities, so I can shut off the external microphone and only hear the phone call that comes through. It only works on my personal phone, but I actually enjoy talking on the phone with my family and friends now, whereas I used to avoid it like the plague.
As another deaf developer (severe-to-profound loss), this is absolutely on point. A lot of the traditional techniques that work for most companies don't work for me, especially when it comes to pair programming. I strongly dislike group stand-ups, because I never know who's going to talk next.
One of the other things I've found myself struggling with is when to tell someone that I have a hearing loss. I feel like if I do it in the first interview, I'll set off unconscious biases, and during the hiring meeting someone will think, "Well, he can't hear shit, which might make it harder to get things done over time", and I won't get the job. On the other hand, once I get that offer and accept, then they're already invested in me, and a little bit of extra effort would be worth it. I tend to go back and forth on it. Some interviews I say it straight up, others I wait until I get an offer, and sometimes I only mention it if I think it's interfering somehow with the progress of the interview or project (e.g., I find myself saying "what" a lot or mishearing what they said).
It's a tough problem, and I wish I felt more confident about how other people would respond to that knowledge. I usually feel... safer?... when I've already secured the position, but honestly, I've never had a bad reaction to it from anyone, so maybe I'm just overthinking things.
I'm rambling now. Anyway. Totally agree with the post.
> One of the other things I've found myself struggling with is when to tell someone that I have a hearing loss. I feel like if I do it in the first interview, I'll set off unconscious biases
I completely understand this and have felt the same way, but the trade-off I ended up making in my mind to make me feel more comfortable with being up-front is that if they're not willing to be accommodating for the interview, working there is probably going to be living hell. I try to think of it as me interviewing them as well, to see how they're willing to work with me.
Yes, I agree, to an extent. However, I think the real world is a little bit more complicated than that. Most people, given the opportunity, would brush aside even modest hardship, and you can't blame them for that. Why walk all the way across the parking lot when there's a parking spot right outside the front door?
But given some sort of emotional, personal, or financial investment, the willingness to endure modest hardship skyrockets.
For a pretty contrived example, if a stranger comes up to me and asks me to help them move from their old apartment to their new apartment, I would want significant compensation for the physical hardship and giving up my time and energy. However, if a friend asks me to do so, I'd do it for a slice of pizza and beer or even an IOU to help me at a later date.
Likewise, an interview, if you give them even the slightest reason to say no, they will, because there are plenty of fish in the sea that won't have that modest hardship. But at the same time, if I can get them to put a little bit of personal, emotional, or financial investment in me, their willingness to accommodate my disability -- ignoring the law for a moment here -- also skyrockets. Once they're invested in me even a little bit, they're a thousand times more willing to help out in any reasonable way that they can.
That said, you're absolutely right that we should keep an eye out for people that won't accommodate us at all. I just disagree with the notion that up-front dismissal == no accommodation at all.
Totally agree with this. It's usually the second or third thing that I say in an interview after "hello", so I can get them to arrange where everyone sits in a favourable way. If they're dicks about it then you're not going to want to work with them. It is scary, though - nobody wants to feel like somebody hates them because of a disability that can't be helped, so I get why it's a preoccupation, and most of us will have had the same worry.
Regarding standups, I agree that they're a PITA. Talk to your scrum master about it if you have one - it's their job to facilitate communication. My past scrum masters have used the Wooden Spoon method (you only get to talk if you're holding the spoon) or they've stood beside me and taken brief notes for me throughout. We also experimented with doing our standups over Slack, which was FANTASTIC.
We use a ball, but the same method applies. It works great during small standups, but at all-hands meetings it gets unwieldy, especially if someone cracks a joke and everyone but me is laughing. That kind of sucks. But you're right, it definitely helps. At my next job, I plan on pushing for Slack standups, for sure.
Ding ding ding
>> The stereotype of a programmer as a solitary eccentric who’s allergic to human company is unfair and inaccurate. As a group, we’re a very social bunch.
I'm a disabled programmer too. In my case, it's autism so statements like this make me cringe. It puts up an exaggerated effigy of some weirdo with asperger syndrome so neurotypicals can say "We're not like that guy!"
Programmers need a quiet place to work. But that's a hard thing to even reach for if you're also trying to distance yourself from the "solitary eccentric". Socializing is generally noisy. A deaf person just spread sentiment that fundamentally encourages the raising of noise levels. I'm not sure how to respond to that.
Hey, article writer here. I feel shitty that I made you feel shitty. I'm sorry to have been insensitive.
I'd also like to say that I am absolutely against raising of noise levels because that sucks for coding and also life in general. I'm deaf, but not completely deaf, and I also have a condition called "recruitment" which is a form of noise sensitivity that you can read about here: http://www.hyperacusis.net/hyperacusis/hyperacusis+or+recrui... Recruitment makes noisy office environments an absolute nightmare for me and I've been known to take my damn laptop and go the hell home and work there if the noise levels ramp up.
Sociability in programmers takes many forms, and I don't think it's a coincidence that sites like HN and stackoverflow are so popular with devs - that's a way of very sociable without actually having to speak to people in meatspace. Programming has probably more of its fair share of introverts and non-neurotypical peeps, partly because of the requirement for peace and quiet while you're working out hard problems. I think it's also partly because as a group we're more accepting of others' needs and differences. Mack Collier did a great post on this, and it's this sort of concept I was thinking about when I wrote that part of the article: http://mackcollier.com/why-introverts-love-social-media/
So once again, sorry for making you feel shitty. In future I'll be on guard against coming out with things like that. Keep being awesome!
Nobody is shitty here. Just human. Stupid things sometimes can slip into anybody's blog post, mine included. It doesn't take away the value of what you were communicating here about accessibility. I loved your post. The blind uncle who introduced me to programming would have loved it too.
I just looked at that hyperaccusis website and that "sssh" animated globe graphic in the top left is incredibly annoying, and somewhat ironic given the subject matter. Some kind of a joke I guess, but I can't scroll it off and it makes the page impossible for me to read!
I've been a developer for about fifteen years, and for the past four I've been dealing with progressive bilateral hearing loss related to an autoimmune condition. It's been a struggle to adapt, and one of my big fears is if I have to move between companies whether I'll be able to get past the easy discrimination that can happen in the hiring process. My current company has guidelines for assisting impaired employees, but it's easy to get weeded out in an interview just because the interviewer doesn't like you.
I'm a hearing developer with conversational ASL skills, and there was a brief time when I had the opportunity to work with a Deaf developer. We didn't get to write much code together, but he was able to help me learn the signs to talk tech jargon and we had a grand old time. He was thrilled to be able to communicate effectively with someone at the workplace. One of the best parts was seeing my coworkers react when I started signing with him - I hadn't mentioned that I could use ASL.
ASL is a pretty easy language to learn and it's pretty rewarding. I suggest more devs try it, especially if you have the chance to work with someone who you could communicate more effectively with via ASL.
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For the deaf developers around, how many of you use ASL?
How often have you been able to use it in at work?
I don't use (or even know) ASL. My (hearing) mother tried to get me to learn it when I was younger and enrolled me in classes, but the age disparity and cliqueish community turned me off even when I was 6 or 7. I especially remember getting a list of restaurants that had accommodations for us, so we were encouraged to use them, and how that really rubbed me the wrong way (because my favorite wasn't on the list).
Rarely, ASL interpreters have been offered to me (high school, as an option to explore in college), but since I don't know ASL, it was never really an option for me. It definitely wouldn't be a realistic option here in Japan. (I imagine any Japanese-ASL interpreter could command a pretty penny for the very rare times that they're needed!)
How did you end up in Japan, if I may ask?
I would assume daily life could be a little more complicated because of the foreign language. But thinking about it a bit maybe that helps when deaf. The local population I guess automatically make allowances assuming you don't know the language. I have deaf family members, and I constantly see them getting frustrated by people who assume the deaf person understands every thing they are saying, if that makes any sense.
> How did you end up in Japan, if I may ask?
Majored in Japanese in college, but I couldn't speak it worth a damn. I figured that if I really wanted to be able to use Japanese in a reasonable way, I should just move here, so I got a job assisting with English education in public schools as an ALT.
> The local population I guess automatically make allowances assuming you don't know the language.
I look more or less Japanese, so they actually assume I do know the language -- it's a bit of a shock when they find that not only do I not know the language, I'm also handicapped. (Deaf people in Japan don't have very much exposure; the few that I've met have tended to keep very strongly to their own Deaf communities.)
It's actually worse in some ways; in America, if I don't hear something, I can say that and the other person understands that. Here, if I don't hear something, it's a 50/50 chance whether the other person believes me or simply thinks my Japanese isn't up to snuff (which I can tell because they resort to much, much simpler language to describe the word they thought I didn't "hear").
I see. Sorry to hear that. I can imagine the day to day complications, but I hope other stuff in Japan more than makes up for it. Like the food :)
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