Deaf Protest, Washington, DC., Sept. 6-9

It's not about your deafness.

It is about your skills, and how you sell yourself in a job interview.

I have a very good job and I always went to job interviews without an interpreter and don't even tell them I'm deaf. I just show up. No problems, and I still got the job. It's about what you have to offer with your skills.

This is just my opinion.

What is your job?
 
Interesting, are you able to drive?
yep have been able to drive since I was 18. With restrictions (corrective lens and outside mirrors of course- nothing to do with deafness). Still can but that can change in years to come (but I hope not); down side is every time I move and have to get new license I just about 100% of the time fail THEIR eye test and have to get a doctor note/letter/form. Doctors I've seen say I'm fine to drive.

As for attitude for jobs-- yes I have that and that's how I got the jobs I had in IT. Not sure why it's harder this time around though. I don't always 'just show up' as I noted in my previous post, most recruiters and some jobs are out of state and I don't have the money to go trotting into offices lol. Most interviews I've had in the last year were either by phone (VRS 90% of the time and they do find out eventually anyway) or by Skype (somewhat better but still not great as my lipreading skills is somewhere in the 2% range); I've had some face to face but most are for 'initial meetings' with recruiters. The landscape for job hunting has changed A LOT in ten years.
 
I offer no answers. But here are somw ideas.
Well, we need to keep our loot for ourselves and at amongst ourselves, as in fiest we should support Deaf first. Secnd hearies..allot easier in the net age then before too.
We need to cultivate Deaf bussiness so they can hire Deafies
We as a people need to address and get a handle on how behind we are compared t hearies in education snd getting jobs...
We need to be proactive. Begging wont do squat
All easier signed then done. Obviously
Its a long term view , the long game..
We need to help ourselves...
Hearies want to assimilate and drill holes into us.and dream and are activily working towards ridding the world of people like us...the help they offer always comes with strings....
Deaf for Deaf!!
Walking in circles with a picket, is just useless theatre really
A Deaf business or any business that has a large number of Deaf employees would be easier for both the Deaf and hearing members of that business. When it's just one or maybe two Deaf/HOH people, the balance is so swayed that for the company it's easier to treat the Deaf/HOH person differently instead of leveling the bar so communication is more even.

I'd imagine the concept can work. Places like NTID and Gallaudet are examples of that, sort of. ASL is a requirement of employment and part of the day to day operation at either of them. I don't think there's any reason that can't be applied to any other type of business. The company wouldn't be allowed to discriminate on hearing ability, but language proficiency is absolutely fine to require when hiring. Legally, this could almost certainly be okay, but a lawyer would have to weigh in there to be sure.

Taking it from concept to reality could be as simple as finding a few eager, ambitious groups of recent grads with entrepreneurial spirit and solid business ideas. Basically, like starting any other business. But then to take that to the next level would require many of these such businesses. But a few successes and new grads who happen to be native ASL speakers might be inspired to follow suit and help keep the culture thriving. It'd go along with the entrepreneurial push that's been happening in the US.

Having Deaf businesses that are public facing could be good for Deaf culture too. Show hearing culture that Deaf culture is its own real culture and doesn't need a cure. We have dine in the dark restaurants, why not an all Deaf restaurant where patrons are immersed in Deaf culture for the duration of their meal?
 
There is big problem - I virtually have no families in New York, also I need family to support my medical condition (not because of Usher Syndrome).

My VR won't pay because they only gave me a choice - Gally or RIT so I picked Gally because DC metro have good deafblind service.
Well, sticking it out at Gally might be the better option, honestly. Even if the program isn't that great, you can supplement your learning with online resources and personal projects. Then just get the degree to have the degree and meet that requirement for job applications. It's still fairly important to have a degree even though it might not accurately reflect the skills required to get it. If you don't meet minimum requirements you'll often be dropped from the hiring pool before someone meaningful ever gets to see your resume.

Honestly, in tech, there are a lot of people who don't have relevant college degrees and who learned their tech skills outside of school. A lot of college programs for tech sort of suck and a lot of people in the tech industry feel that a degree shouldn't be a requirement (and often times it's not). That alone should say it's possible to pick up these skills outside of formal schooling.

For programming specifically it's pretty straight forward; you just need a solid portfolio that demonstrates your skill and knowledge. For other tech positions, it'll depend on what you're doing, but being able to demonstrate skill is arguably more important than flashing a degree from any school. The degree just makes it so you meet that requirement and get to round 1 of hiring.

As a person who hires people, I can very firmly say that demonstrating skill/ability is key. I don't know anyone who hires by degree, where it came from, or even how high college grades were. It might be used to help when deciding between two qualified candidates, but that's really it.

Background info: I work as a full stack developer at a university and I've worked with (and have hired) people from wildly varying backgrounds.
 
Wow, that's nice.

Bachelor degree is mandatory to work for federal government but I don't want to stay at Gallaudet University because education performance in IT major is abysmal, also other reason about don't want live in dorm and cafeteria.

I have one year to left to complete the associate degree, however I have little more than 90 credits on bachelor degree but it will take 2 years to complete the major related courses (60 credits).

You have said what I added the bold to several times. But what I don't remember getting a clear answer to is why you feel you would have to live in a dorm and use the cafeteria???
 
How are those foreclosure cases coming, especially in the northeast?

I want to say that I've given up on finding jobs that pay more than 13-15k per year, and jobs I want to do. Right now I'm going through a "civilizational" change in perspective on the job market. It's as though I was a westerner (one who lives in white/anglo society like America, and Europe) and died at 47 and came back for another life as a Hindu. Completely different mindsets about how society is conducted in terms of social structure in the government and job markets, as well as the spiritual principles underlying them.

I'm attempting to find a way to do service for Indian civilization, whether here or in India.

How about build a Deaf town put together by Deaf businesses and residents?
 
Well, sticking it out at Gally might be the better option, honestly. Even if the program isn't that great, you can supplement your learning with online resources and personal projects. Then just get the degree to have the degree and meet that requirement for job applications. It's still fairly important to have a degree even though it might not accurately reflect the skills required to get it. If you don't meet minimum requirements you'll often be dropped from the hiring pool before someone meaningful ever gets to see your resume.

Honestly, in tech, there are a lot of people who don't have relevant college degrees and who learned their tech skills outside of school. A lot of college programs for tech sort of suck and a lot of people in the tech industry feel that a degree shouldn't be a requirement (and often times it's not). That alone should say it's possible to pick up these skills outside of formal schooling.

For programming specifically it's pretty straight forward; you just need a solid portfolio that demonstrates your skill and knowledge. For other tech positions, it'll depend on what you're doing, but being able to demonstrate skill is arguably more important than flashing a degree from any school. The degree just makes it so you meet that requirement and get to round 1 of hiring.

As a person who hires people, I can very firmly say that demonstrating skill/ability is key. I don't know anyone who hires by degree, where it came from, or even how high college grades were. It might be used to help when deciding between two qualified candidates, but that's really it.

Background info: I work as a full stack developer at a university and I've worked with (and have hired) people from wildly varying backgrounds.

I already withdrew from Gallaudet last month and I'm enough with Gallaudet.
 
It's not about your deafness.

It is about your skills, and how you sell yourself in a job interview.

I have a very good job and I always went to job interviews without an interpreter and don't even tell them I'm deaf. I just show up. No problems, and I still got the job. It's about what you have to offer with your skills.

This is just my opinion.

That's not true - the deafness are factor in job discrimination, depending on severity of hearing loss and communication skill.

There are many deaf people have basic skills to perform a job that don't require a lot of skills like fast food and retail but most employers don't want to hire them due to communication barriers, also some customers complained to manager about me and one of customer told me that I'm unable to use oral language so I shouldn't work so I asked them about how I would survive without money? They told me that government take care of me. I said that's not true - government don't have full capacity to take care of all people with disabilities so they walked away. In my experience, most hearing people are ignorant about deaf people. I had excellent performance on job performance and they let me go because of many accidents - it is obviously related to my vision limitation, but they let me to resign after 2 weeks notice.

I have IT experience for 10 years and I worked with computers, networking, tablets, smartphones and fixed some of customer's computers. I received IT certification after 100% on exam and I learn a lot of new technologies. It is not difficult to become a adoptive with new technologies. I tried to fill the application with various IT companies/departments but nobody call me so my VR counselor told me that my deafness is absolutely factor not call for interview or getting hired. IT companies/departments have no issue to hire someone with little or moderate IT experience, no college degree nor certification but they refused to hire me.

Your situation doesn't means all deaf people are same - that's very complicated.

I'm profoundly deaf and 100% ASL (no oral language).
 
You have said what I added the bold to several times. But what I don't remember getting a clear answer to is why you feel you would have to live in a dorm and use the cafeteria???

because my VR only pay for dorm and cafeteria, no exception.

I don't have any known families in DC metro and it is difficult for me to live alone due to medical issue.
 
Nic says....
Honestly, in tech, there are a lot of people who don't have relevant college degrees and who learned their tech skills outside of school. A lot of college programs for tech sort of suck and a lot of people in the tech industry feel that a degree shouldn't be a requirement (and often times it's not). That alone should say it's possible to pick up these skills outside of formal schooling.
He's right. My BA degree (and 1 year of a Master's program...) is nowhere near IT related... well except for maybe knowing how to design a test plan (like a lesson plan lol). I spent some years as a social service worker/case manager then went to business school (Computer Programming) that was more or less a 'Tech diploma'. The fact that I don't have an IT degree has not really affected my employment though with QA testing in the beginning I kind of wondered if they hired just about anybody they could find to fill the cubes (Y2K). Now, QA is more involved and requires a LOT of knowledge. My experience in QA seems to be a little too narrow these days to find a good job but they're out there- just that many times there's a large number of applicants for the 1 job.

For programming specifically it's pretty straight forward; you just need a solid portfolio that demonstrates your skill and knowledge. For other tech positions, it'll depend on what you're doing, but being able to demonstrate skill is arguably more important than flashing a degree from any school. The degree just makes it so you meet that requirement and get to round 1 of hiring.
Interesting. Right now I am doing freecodecamp.com to build up more knowledge as well as a portfolio/repository of code. In general I'm good at coding but conceptualizing what to design is where I stink lol.

As a person who hires people, I can very firmly say that demonstrating skill/ability is key. I don't know anyone who hires by degree, where it came from, or even how high college grades were. It might be used to help when deciding between two qualified candidates, but that's really it.
Sooo... hiring? Hmm... :) I still want to move to Washington (Seattle) but know that the cost of living is a bit on the high side. I know I won't be able to move ANYWHERE with the 'income' I have right now (no I will not disclose what type it is- not publicly).
 
That's not true - the deafness are factor in job discrimination, depending on severity of hearing loss and communication skill.

There are many deaf people have basic skills to perform a job that don't require a lot of skills like fast food and retail but most employers don't want to hire them due to communication barriers, also some customers complained to manager about me and one of customer told me that I'm unable to use oral language so I shouldn't work so I asked them about how I would survive without money? They told me that government take care of me. I said that's not true - government don't have full capacity to take care of all people with disabilities so they walked away. In my experience, most hearing people are ignorant about deaf people. I had excellent performance on job performance and they let me go because of many accidents - it is obviously related to my vision limitation, but they let me to resign after 2 weeks notice.

I have IT experience for 10 years and I worked with computers, networking, tablets, smartphones and fixed some of customer's computers. I received IT certification after 100% on exam and I learn a lot of new technologies. It is not difficult to become a adoptive with new technologies. I tried to fill the application with various IT companies/departments but nobody call me so my VR counselor told me that my deafness is absolutely factor not call for interview or getting hired. IT companies/departments have no issue to hire someone with little or moderate IT experience, no college degree nor certification but they refused to hire me.

Your situation doesn't means all deaf people are same - that's very complicated.

I'm profoundly deaf and 100% ASL (no oral language).

And now you still looking for IT job? If you got an job here in Maryland, would you be willing to relocate? I'm going to see if I can open one up for you but some area may require security clearance. I be willing to see if I can get you one here?
 
I know your post was directed to Foxrac but if you can give me any kind of networking, assistance etc, I'm willing to relocate anywhere myself. Thanks :)
 
I know your post was directed to Foxrac but if you can give me any kind of networking, assistance etc, I'm willing to relocate anywhere myself. Thanks :)

It's not a problem at all. Let me PM you for additional info.
 
I am going to be completely honest with this post. If the mods find this offensive, they can just go ahead and remove this post.

But anyway...

Ah yes, they're currently the 'hot' topic going on for a while now in the Facebook group 'Deaf Thought Police' and in some other groups too.

We found out that he (Charlton) was charged with felony (?) and I think most of us know that most of the jobs won't want to hire a person who was charged with felony. So from my impression he left me with, he was only setting up the protest to get what he want, not for the others... Mainly because the jobs won't hire him due to his background, not because of his deafness. Yes, the deaf people do get discriminated but it usually get resolved pretty quickly and most of you guys already knew Charlton came off with his broken English skill and I couldn't understand what he's trying to say the half of the times, that's another reason why they probably won't hire him.

I mean, don't get me wrong, his heart is in the right place but he's approaching the issue in a wrong way. Some people had the concerns and questions about his planned protest and he didn't even bother to answer them. He just went and deleted any comments on his wall that asked him some questions, and some people was giving him the constructive criticism and disagreement but he even went far enough to block some of those people. It is very important for the good leader to be open with any type of discussion and must be wiling to communicate with any type of questions, concerns, and disagreement instead of just deleting them off their wall and blocking the person.

He and some of his followers like Alexander Son (Alexander was claiming himself to be the good leader as well) was coming off with vile attitude and calling them names such as 'retard' just because some people tried to offer some constructive criticism. I am sorry but in my book, that does not make him and Alexander Son a good leader... if anything, it's more of a dictatorship.

Charlton even spammed some of us with his countless friend requests to try and get them to participate in the protest. He fully expect the ADA law to fully change after one protest which is why it won't be successful. The purpose of the protest is to help the people be more aware about the issue, not to force the laws to be changed to suit their needs right away. There's another issue as well, they're doing the protest on Labor Day weekend where most of the people working at the White House would be off anyway.

Just my two cents here.
 
I am going to be completely honest with this post. If the mods find this offensive, they can just go ahead and remove this post.

But anyway...

Ah yes, they're currently the 'hot' topic going on for a while now in the Facebook group 'Deaf Thought Police' and in some other groups too.

We found out that he (Charlton) was charged with felony (?) and I think most of us know that most of the jobs won't want to hire a person who was charged with felony. So from my impression he left me with, he was only setting up the protest to get what he want, not for the others... Mainly because the jobs won't hire him due to his background, not because of his deafness. Yes, the deaf people do get discriminated but it usually get resolved pretty quickly and most of you guys already knew Charlton came off with his broken English skill and I couldn't understand what he's trying to say the half of the times, that's another reason why they probably won't hire him.

I mean, don't get me wrong, his heart is in the right place but he's approaching the issue in a wrong way. Some people had the concerns and questions about his planned protest and he didn't even bother to answer them. He just went and deleted any comments on his wall that asked him some questions, and some people was giving him the constructive criticism and disagreement but he even went far enough to block some of those people. It is very important for the good leader to be open with any type of discussion and must be wiling to communicate with any type of questions, concerns, and disagreement instead of just deleting them off their wall and blocking the person.

He and some of his followers like Alexander Son (Alexander was claiming himself to be the good leader as well) was coming off with vile attitude and calling them names such as 'retard' just because some people tried to offer some constructive criticism. I am sorry but in my book, that does not make him and Alexander Son a good leader... if anything, it's more of a dictatorship.

Charlton even spammed some of us with his countless friend requests to try and get them to participate in the protest. He fully expect the ADA law to fully change after one protest which is why it won't be successful. The purpose of the protest is to help the people be more aware about the issue, not to force the laws to be changed to suit their needs right away. There's another issue as well, they're doing the protest on Labor Day weekend where most of the people working at the White House would be off anyway.

Just my two cents here.

Well.....thats allot of slander.
Besides slander not much in your above post.
Deaf thought police
Haha
Funny
 
Was kicked out of Deaf Thought Police and several other groups....:giggle:....disagree with one of the Admin.?....then ur azz is out....I thought it funny....That's why I stay with AD and now with FB....

Don't feel "Zeo" is doing any slandering...and if in fact, Mr. Charlton did commit a felony. then he should be upfront about it....:hmm:

And beginning to get mixed feelings about this Protest....Am hoping if it does transpire, it will be successful and violence-free...making a huge "dent" among employers to consider hiring more deafies....
 
Was kicked out of Deaf Thought Police and several other groups....:giggle:....disagree with one of the Admin.?....then ur azz is out....I thought it funny....That's why I stay with AD and now with FB....

There's one source of him committing a felony. Here you go.

http://mugshots.com/US-Counties/Florida/St-Johns-County-FL/Charlton-Edward-Lachase.819039.html

Don't feel "Zeo" is doing any slandering...and if in fact, Mr. Charlton did commit a felony. then he should be upfront about it....:hmm:

And beginning to get mixed feelings about this Protest....Am hoping if it does transpire, it will be successful and violence-free...making a huge "dent" among employers to consider hiring more deafies....

I find it funny that one guy tried to say I was doing lot of slandering toward him because the things I mentioned in a previous post does happen and I pointed out some of his flaws too. Charlton and few of his followers expect everyone to follow him like a dog, and if you question his motives... even if you're being really civil about it, he'll go and block you from commenting some more, he can't take some criticisms like I stated in my last post.

It's so easy to pull out a slander card at anything if someone see you talking about a certain person they liked/love; by pointing out the flaws and speaking the truth. In fact, pointing out his flaws are not a slander. Slander mean you'd talk about someone and giving out fake informations related to that 'someone' that would ruin their reputation.

But yeah, I don't mind the protest but they should be doing it in a civil way instead of expecting everything to be handed to you on the platter and if they don't, start a riot!! THAT IS NOT A WAY TO GO FOR THE PROTEST.
 
Was kicked out of Deaf Thought Police and several other groups....:giggle:....disagree with one of the Admin.?....then ur azz is out....I thought it funny....That's why I stayslander with AD and now with FB....

Don't feel "Zeo" is doing any slandering...and if in fact, Mr. Charlton did commit a felony. then he should be upfront about it....:hmm:

And beginning to get mixed feelings about this Protest....Am hoping if it does transpire, it will be successful and violence-free...making a huge "dent" among employers to consider hiring more deafies....

The slander is the attacking the person as in the ad homenum, and not engaging in the persons ideas.
Regarding the guy who is the lesder.
So he is a felon.
Meh
I dont really see why thats even important.
Then he justvstwes his imprrssion the guy ju stvsetvup the protest to get what h ants and not for others, and the guy has brokn english skills. And he couldnt understand him...gosh what about sign for heavens sake.
Then he stated others had some plms with how he planned the protest but he didnt address them...so on so forth..
Anyway
It was just one ad homenum after another...
Meh
 
Yes, I do sign. Why?

However, where did I say that he is an bad leader because he's a felon? I only said he's a bad leader because of the impression he left for us, and we have the right to think from the impression. deleted all the comments that stated the concerns, questions, and disagreement. A leader should be willing to cooperate with everyone regardless of who they are.

Some of us did engage in the discussion with him and gave him some constructive ideas but he ended deleting our comments for no reasons. :hmm: You do know we have the right to state our opinions as well... Why? He made himself out in there in front of everyone and some people will state their opinions in some place where the guy can't see. That happens and you can't exactly control it.
 
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