The Blind Spot of Deaf Unemployment Problem
Authors: Brandon Marin, Spencer Montan, & Greyson Watkins
Are you Deaf or hard of hearing?
Are you a Deaf job seeker?
Are you an employer that employs Deaf employees?
Are you an employer that wishes to hire Deaf employees?
Are you an organization that wishes to improve the Deaf employment rate?
Or simply put, are you a citizen concerned about making the world a better place?
If so, keep on reading.
First things first, the fundamental message is…
…there is a massive, overlooked blind spot in the Deaf employment ecosystem.
We need to reveal more about this alarming phenomenon. We need to challenge and shift our perspectives. We need to create new approaches to eliminating blind spots and closing erosive gaps in the Deaf employment sector.
With this written piece, we hope to shed light on this blind spot — and inspire everyone to think bigger, bolder, and radically on how to eradicate the abnormally high rate of unemployment for Deaf people around the globe.
THE STRUGGLE
You’ve probably seen this all over the recent news — on NPR, Washington Post, Business Insider — the unemployment rate for the Deaf and hard of hearing floats at least 70% globally.
In the United States, that’s an estimated impact of over 1 million Deaf people.
In India, it is estimated that it affects somewhere of 18 million Indian citizens.
In China, 21 million.
And there’s over 250 other countries. I’ll let you imagine what the total number could be.
The point is, a substantial number of Deaf and hard of hearing people are without jobs or struggling to get employed. This is seriously a staggering number.
We ask why?
According to the Deaf Job Wizard, the steady increase of unemployment rate is due to the discriminatory hiring practices of employers, whether they are or not doing it intentionally.
And that’s just one problem out of many. Past hiring practices, it’s the systematic oppression at large — built on centuries of destructive misbeliefs, privileges being abused, and the strange, nonsensical, freaky notion that the general population possess — a sense of physical superiority over a marginalized group like the Deaf and hard of hearing community.
Nowadays, advocates and employers are focusing on correcting the hiring practices and tackling this problem through social justice — such as diversity training, self-awareness, et al.
Example: A Deaf job sourcing organization lists out “recommendations” that are expected to systemically encourage Deaf job-seekers to adjust their attitudes, behaviors, and approaches to acquiring employment. Deaf candidates and the workforce are collectively expected to perform routine trainings on diversity and hiring practice, improvements in technical assistance, self-awareness on communication clarity and inclusiveness.
The community and organizations are naturally expected to develop synergy and engage with stakeholders and partners to execute initiatives improving the way employers perceive the Deaf community.
Great! The Deaf unemployment problem should dissolve in sure time…
…but again, the impact of this approach is generally acute and only capable of addressing temporary, superficial issues.
We as a collective have been actively hacking the cogs of the system, but not the framework of the system.
It’s almost like playing a perpetual game of whack-a-mole. The global Deaf community as a whole has been running on fumes and we are exhausted.
REVEALING THE BLIND SPOT
With that being said, let’s now introduce you to the unique angle recently discovered within the Deaf employment ecosystem.
It is a given that we, the Deaf people, confront numerous, long-standing physical barriers based on the misconception that we must “rely” on the ability of hearing sounds: alerts, signals, auditory cues, information, spoken language, and other forms of sound stimuli — conclusively stemming from the precedent that Deaf citizens are severely disadvantaged compared to the majority of the population.
This phenomenon, beginning centuries ago, is the byproduct of industrialization causing rapid emergence in the global economy while simultaneously systemically preventing Deaf people from securing and sustaining employment.
Over the years, we have had the privilege to absorb many stories where the employers would often recognize the value of Deaf employees. Regardless their acknowledgement of our value, employers often “exempt” Deaf employees due to liabilities and risks associated with the jobs which generally require hearing abilities such as piloting, defense, emergency and protective services — police, fire fighting, and EMS, as well as manufacturing, trade work, lifeguarding, caretaking…the list goes on.
Throughout the massive global employment ecosystem, there are numerous “bottlenecks” in how employers implement accessible practices when it comes to hiring Deaf and hard of hearing candidates.
So, who’s the culprit behind all of this? Do we put the blame solely on the employers?
…the system?
…the weaves of United States’ capitalism?
…the ableist belief that the working environment is “dangerous” because Deaf and all other disabled folks don’t have the “physical capabilities”?
Regardless of these circumstances, the cold fact remains… this type of discriminatory behavior is extremely difficult to prove… as if the discrimination itself is invisible.
We should call this effect as Discriminatory Creep.
Discriminatory Creep (n) : the tendency of discriminatory behaviors to influence other behaviors in different areas of society.
As in a bad guy named Discrimination creeping in to prey on us when least aware, then once we see Discrimination preying on us, and recognize the damage caused by the bad guy… suddenly he vanishes. With its undeniable negative effects lingering on for decades and decades. Everyone is running around figuring out how to keep Discrimination out of our lives.
And, at the same time, we are trying to convince the mainstream that we saw Discrimination, felt its effect, but the majority often do not believe us.
Historically, the mainstream attitude is that we, the Deaf people, have been crying wolf.
Either ways, this has been happening for centuries. It’s so hard to fully articulate this issue but our biggest question of all:
When will the problem be solved?
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
What is the antidote? The answer to the Deaf community’s seemingly permanent downfall?
Let’s go on a tangent for a moment to give you a bigger picture of where the potential solution could be introduced at.
Below, you may see the Maslow Hierarchy of Human Needs:
You may have heard of it or not. In a nutshell, it is the theory defining human needs categorized by five tiers of needs that we innately achieve throughout our lifetimes.
The tiers of utmost importance are within the Basic Needs section enclosing Physiological Needs as the most fundamental tier transitioning to Safety Needs as the second most essential tier. Humans naturally satisfy these needs prior to achieving more complicated interpersonal and communication related Needs.
The process continues to Self Actualization, the feeling where you have truly fulfilled and appreciate all of your life needs and desires.
The catch? If our basic needs are not met, we will not be able to satisfy our needs further up on the ladder, beyond Physiological and Safety needs.
If vice versa, we would be much more psychologically motivated to satisfy our new needs on a deeper level such as, socializing, maintaining self-esteem, building cultural wealth, and contributing to the community.
Next, let’s apply the scope of Maslow’s hierarchy on the Deaf community.
The majority of the Deaf community unintentionally believes that:
We can do anything except hear.
Why are we still fixated on the “…except hear” part?
Why have we yet to apply innovative design and product engineering principles to address that part?
The sobering truth is that the majority of people do glorify the “…except hear” part and they unintentionally celebrate this attitude yet they still unconsciously and systematically oppress the Deaf and hard of hearing community.
If we work to reframe our world and confidently say we can do anything, and have the technology to provide us with tools to hear since we do not hear.
This would change everything.
Hearing people create their own system tools for themselves to advance in the society, and marginalize other groups…who said we can’t advocate for and create tools that help us advance?
Think about it for a second.
This means transcending the Maslow perspective by fulfilling the notion that we can do anything with the correct technology… and eliminating the mainstream unintentionally exempt us from many opportunities due to the “…except hear” part.
Employers focus on the physical capability of listening and hearing sounds to make proactive decisions such as the TSO that require TSA officers to be able to hear.
A corporate policy prevented a Deaf employee, Nicholas Siewertsen, from operating forklifts, cranes, and other heavy, motorized equipment at warehouses and plants. Nicholas was denied to obtain reasonable accommodations to operate forklifts and cranes even though he had an excellent safety record and received awards for his safety performance.
In 2006, UPS, a private package carrier, banned hundreds of Deaf employees from retaining jobs that drive smaller delivery vans (those weighing 10,000 pounds or less) and halted them from receiving compensation for driving trucks and promotions. Atlanta-based UPS alleged that Deaf drivers presented a safety issue because they could not hear other vehicles approaching. They failed to provide solutions such as additional mirrors, backing cameras, or other assistive devices that would reduce the risk of vehicle collisions.
That goes for employers in emergency services, manufacturing, and any industry that rely heavily on auditory context.
The world is conditioned to value sound stimuli through actions such as someone yelling “look out” behind a worker, something dangerous happening in a public space, on a factory floor with numerous machines moving around, inside a plane where deep listening skills apply to detecting defects before a disaster happens.
Deaf employees rely on visual alerting devices (flashing lights, ) to inform them to a machine malfunctioning, a fire, or other urgent situations that require evacuation at workplaces (IT outrages, weather-related incidents, power outages, natural disasters, & health and safety incidents). They need devices that they would become aware of emergencies and drills and other critical vocal announcements.
So, why not build the technology that allows machines to listen to sounds for Deaf people and for anyone as well?
When we build technology benefiting Disabled groups, this creates a “curb cut effect”, a popular universal design term that ensures accessibility, which is based on the example of a curb cut that allows a smooth passage between the street and the sidewalk.
The curb cut was originally designed only for people with wheelchairs… however it had a profound impact by making it easier for everyone to travel between the street and the sidewalk.
You may see another curb cut effect example below:
Curb Cut Example: The City of San Francisco integrated captioning display services into the train’s frame rather than through a separate device attached to the frame. This was originally intended as an accessible feature for Deaf people who don’t hear the PA… and it benefits everybody. Hearing people rely on the captions displayer to indicate their respective stops and announcements without having to worry about being distracted by the noisy environment or listening to music on headphones.
With that being said…
…we have yet to implement a “curb cut effect” in a world filled with sounds.
THE SOLUTION
With years of research as an early-stage startup focused on the emerging sound recognition market…
…we came to conclusion that sound recognition technology is a true curb cut effect solution.
Sound recognition technology makes any environmental and ambient sounds accessible to devices and machines, enabling technology platforms to comprehend and respond to sound stimuli.
Imagine a world where all devices and machines, not limited to, phones, smart watches, TV, smart speakers, cameras, robotics, connected vehicles, Internet of Things devices that have a microphone and a processor which are capable of responding to sounds by:
- Notifying you what sounds are occurring…
- Triggering an action to prevent the need of a human intervention…
- Rendering sound data into human readable/digestible formats…
- Enhancing context from sound data…
- Logging sound data for further reference…
- Many different use cases associated with sounds.
All of the above capabilities have one thing in common: the emerging technology renders the world of sounds as something tangible for someone who doesn’t hear.
Let’s go back to the Maslow Hierarchy for a moment, focusing on the bottom tier: Physiological Needs.
Sound recognition technology empower Deaf citizens around the world to meet their physiological needs, with tools that can alter their lives… and encourage them to focus on deeper challenges that life brings us — rather than the society reminding us everyday that we have a hell of a hard time going up the Maslow hierarchy beyond our Physiological Needs… just because we don’t hear.
The technology, once made available, creates a curb cut effect for Deaf people to navigate through a noisy world.
The curb cut effect principle ends with hearing people subsequently enjoying many benefits from sound recognition technology natively integrated into the physical environment.
Delegating the task of hearing (in certain scenarios) to sound recognition technology through an universal design, for virtually any scenario, especially in jobs that Deaf people are not allow to employ, will drastically change the way we live with sounds.
The moment when the world embraces sound recognition technology…the world shall witness a positive disruption in how Deaf people perceive and navigate through barriers, since they can now access to an incredible amount of data and information from sounds.
Moving forward, together we will prosper as a result.
Once the disruptive emerging sound recognition technology propagates around the world, the mainstream will be able to accelerate the market adoption of the technology by realizing the infinite number of use cases.
Again, this results in a growing dependence and delegation of our hearing tasks to this technology. This kind of behavior is normalized nowadays… people developing software to do their daily tasks or minimize their workload, and maximize their financial returns.
According to a quote Marc Andreessen famously said, “…software is eating world.” This is why we need to keep an open mind, open heart, and open eyes on how easily we can solve our problems if we believe in the vision of developing curb cut effect solutions into every tenet of our lives.
Ultimately, we foresee the effects from the integration of sound recognition technology to be profound.
Employers are consequently influenced to adjust their mindsets and attitudes hiring Deaf candidates since they are equipped with tools powered by sound recognition technology that perform hearing duties for Deaf people and for anyone. This encourages employers to focus on Deaf candidates’ qualities and eliminate the need for them to compare their hearing levels with other candidates who may hear.
This will gradually eradicate engagement with audism among employers in the workplace. This relieves the stress caused by unmet needs in the physical environment.
Disrupting the society to reframe its attitude on accessibility… Why not just implement all aspects of accessibility into our universal design, lifestyle and let it be natural as breathing? If we are able to provide the technology and develop it over years… we should be all in.
WHY NOW?
There are two major market influences/trends in play right now that justifies the theory behind sound recognition as the next generation curb cut effect.
First, according to IoT Analytics findings, as of 2018, approximately 7 billion IoT devices have been deployed globally, with a projected growth of 21.5 billion devices by 2025. Simply mind-boggling.
IoT technology will penetrate nearly every industry such as manufacturing, retail, services, office, and more. The perfect platform to implement new sound recognition features, inching closer to the perfect universal design philosophy. You may find further precedent into this area in this whitepaper that we collaborated on, The Future of Privacy Forum: The Internet of Things (IoT) and Persons with Disabilities: Exploring the Benefits, Challenges, and Privacy Tensions. The growth of IoT technology will continue explosively for the next century.
The rapid emergence of IoT technology is laden with massive, profitable opportunities to design products, technologies, and platforms to generate unlimited curb cut effects.
Secondly, Voice AI has been a driving market force in taking over the world at an astonishing speed. It has been said that voice is the new ”computer mouse or touchscreen” in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
This trend is present with both pros and cons since voice software requires hardware with integrated microphones. Hearing people will be having access to tenfold more hardware capable to run audio/sound related technologies and solutions ever. The con…a large percentage of Deaf people around the world don’t talk or use Voice software. This is where sound AI technology comes in — giving Deaf people newfound ways to interact with voice AI, rather than being left behind in the dark.
Voice AI and IoT, together, is an extraordinarily symbiotic relationship that will exponentially grow and impact everyone across the globe. IoT encourages everyone to adopt evolving technologies to automate tasks, solve difficult problems, and alter our lives with unlimited use cases. Voice AI leverages IoT as a standardized hardware platform to minimize interoperability issues.
Once the mainstream realize the benefits of Voice AI and other technologies, the adoption of IoT will be accelerated beyond our expectations. A potentially perpetual, and unstoppable cycle.
Sound recognition, fortunately, goes hand in hand with the growth of IoT and Voice AI. The curb cut effect is right there, making it easier than ever to access a device with microphones through multiple features. This creates the effect of deploying sound recognition features as simple as downloading an app… rather than re-engineering the whole thing.
Imagine the day in the near future where IoT, Voice AI, Sound AI and other technologies coexist flawlessly making everyone’s, especially our Deaf lives, easier.
CONCLUSION
This perspective, at its infant stage, is a powerful angle addressing the Deaf unemployment issue. By discussing and absorbing in this blindspot, we can come together to tackle product design/strategy projects to implement sound recognition into existing and future microphone hardware platforms.
Thank you for reading.
Written with love,
Greyson, Brandon, Spencer
Behind this article is the Wavio team, an early-stage startup company re-innovating the global approach to sound recognition technologies. We offer software development consultation and services in adding sound recognition to your product. We strive to get companies and organizations up to speed with current audio/sound trends and use cases that give you the opportunity to add new features to your product at premium pricing.
