Story of the Day 6/ 6/ 2014

My son, Aaron, who is deaf, has struggled to find employment.
Part of it is his fault. He is a college drop out.
Except, that, at the moment, he has dropped back in, part time.

But part of it is that one of the first things that any potential employer sees, when they look at my son, is that he is 6'3" and has two huge hearing aids.
Okay, they are not huge. They are normal sized, but they seem to attract a huge number of stares.

As a result, he has spent a lot of time going in and filling out job applications over and over and over, and finally, being hired by a place to which he had applied numerous times.
His being hired only happened AFTER they hired someone who knew him from his previous job;
and after this new hire had told the manager that Aaron really could do the job.
The job which pays minimum wage and involves sweeping up popcorn with a broom and tearing off the ends of tickets.

And ,don't think that what my son has gone through to get a part-time job that happens to pay minimum wage...or did until he got that 15 cents per hour raise....is unusual. When you are deaf or hard or hearing, life can be interesting, especially the part of it that involves looking for a job.

My son has a fried who is deaf, like he is. Deaf as in uses hearing aids and speaks well, but doesn't always understand everyone using spoken English.
So, this other young man, today, told my son that he had just had a job interview.

When he applied for this job and was told he would be interviewed, this young man told them he was deaf and needed an interpreter.
He showed up and the person interviewing him told him to sit in the chair across from the interviewer's desk, and then the interpreter sat next to him.
Him being the deaf guy who had requested the interpreter.

Immediately, this young man knew there was a problem.
How was he supposed to watch the interpreters signing, and how would she see his responses,if she was facing the interviewer and not him?
It got worse.
The interviewer spoke, and the interpreter turned to the deaf young man and whispered what the interviewer had said, whispered right into his hearing aid.

I am assuming that he was not offered the job.

I am also assuming that the interviewer and the "interpreter" felt they had done a good job in accommodating this guys needs.
I am no longer feeling quite as sorry for my son.

In comparison.