Deaf Text Fire Alarms and Other Ways to Include Deaf Employees at Work
Guest Post
Employers need to ensure that they help facilitate deaf employee needs to prevent them feeling isolated from the rest of the team. Office politics can be hard enough without the added difficulty of being unable to communicate effectively with your colleagues.
Employers need to understand the hurdles that deaf people face in assimilating into the work environment and culture. While deaf people can communicate with either lip reading, sign language or both, awareness within the office is needed to ensure that they don’t feel left out.
1. If simple communications between hearing and deaf people break down daily, imagine what occurs during an emergency. Deaf messaging service (DMS) that alerts the deaf employee via deaf text message that the fire alarm has sounded will help your business comply with elements of the discrimination act. It will also give your employee the freedom to move around the building with the knowledge that they will be alerted to the fact that there is an emergency. The fire alarm for the deaf employee will send a message to their mobile, meaning the employee doesn’t need to carry around any extra equipment.
2. If you’re office is closed plan, with cubicles, and desks facing walls, your deaf employee may feel disconnected, as they rely largely on sight to notify them that something is occurring. They also might miss out on general office banter as well as office directives that get passed around at the water cooler. Ensure that your deaf employee has a desk where they can view what is happening in the office.
3. During meetings ensure that only one person speaks at a time so that the deaf employee can follow the conversation. One way to achieve this is to pass a ball around so that everyone knows whose turn it is to speak and the deaf person knows where to look enabling them to follow the conversation. Have someone transcribe the main points and outcomes of the meeting as well so that the deaf employee doesn’t miss out anything due to mumbling or fast talkers. It will also be beneficial for everyone else to be able to go back and check what was said or decided during the meeting.
By being considerate you can make everyone feel included and thus create a better work environment.
The author of this article writes for Fireco UK providers of fire alarms for the deaf, deaf text alarms and fire compliance in the work place.
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