I am looking for a job. I have a hearing disability. I had surgery and had a cochlear implant. Hearing is very difficult over the phone. I have a graduate degree in business and I am finding it difficult to get a job. Can anyone offer some advice as to how people with disabilities approach the job-hunting tasks?
The good news (or bad, depending on your point of view) is that almost every person who looks for a job faces obstacles (or objections) that have to be overcome. Some are more apparent than others but we all have at least three to five different "disabilities" (in the eyes of others) that create reasons why we might not be the choice for any given employer (regardless of whether we like it, it's fair or unfair, job-discrimination laws and political correctness, these factors exist and are acted upon every day).
We might be too old or too young, a man or a woman, overqualified or under qualified, too general or too specific in our skills and knowledge, too thin or too heavy, hearing impaired or wheelchair bound, black, white, red or purple! So, you can see that every job hunter must find ways to overcome these obstacles by understanding the fear that lies beneath them.
The same is true for you. Understanding the kind of objections an employer might have to hiring a person with a hearing disability might allow you to address the objection up front and put their fears (usually born of inexperience with someone who has the disability or born of ignorance) to rest.
It may interest you to know that according to the National Association of the Deaf, there are approximately 28 million Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing — the term "deaf" referring to individuals who aren't able to hear well enough to rely on hearing as a means for processing information and the term "hard of hearing" referring to individuals who have some hearing loss but are able to use hearing to communicate. That's a lot of people who have to face this obstacle and overcome fears and objections associated with hearing-impaired or deaf people. When it comes to employment some of the fears include:
Some of these fears can be overcome easily by simply pointing out the truth. A knowledgeable candidate will know that, in most cases, the cost to provide needed accommodations (if any) is usually minimal, and tax credits may be available to some employers. As for communication, thanks to modern technology, communication between employers and hearing-impaired or deaf employees is easier than ever — with e-mail, instant messaging, fax, chat programs and text paging it isn't an issue. Even the telephone is no longer a barrier because of the ability to use relay services in many cases. Concern for the proper use of English may be a realistic concern (probably not in your case with your educational background) but employers would be wise to bear in mind that the level of fluency in English isn't a reflection of a deaf person's intelligence but more a result of inadequate education.
As for supervision and lack of productivity concerns, a hearing-impaired person who is placed in the right kind of job will likely need no more supervision than a hearing person and their productivity won't be at issue. The final concern listed above should be the same for all workers. Any savvy employer knows that documentation of problems with employees is the key to a smooth parting, if a good match isn't made. It should be no harder (or easier) to terminate the working relationship with a person considered "disabled" than any other person.
Further good news for you is that there are many resources to help you, not only with job-hunting activities and strategies, but also with general information about this subject. A good place to start might be to check out "CAREERS & the disABLED Magazine," established in 1986, the nation's first and only career-guidance and recruitment magazine for people with disabilities who are at undergraduate, graduate, or professional levels. You can find out how to subscribe at http://www.eop.com/cd.html.
Another site to try is http://deafness.about.com/od/employmentandworking/, which lists many articles and resources to aid you in your job-search activities. http://www.zak.co.il/deaf-info/old/job_seeking.html is another site that might be helpful to you, as it deals with issues of job-hunting for hearing-impaired people. While a bit out of date, it still offers some useful information about how to approach the job hunt and its list of pros and cons of mentioning a hearing impairment on a resume is worth a read.
Finally, remember that your belief in the strength of your skills and abilities will go a long way in convincing an employer to hire you. You are the sum total of all your parts — you must believe and be able to show an employer that what you bring to the table far outweighs the "perceived lack" created by your hearing impairment.