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Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

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Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#61

Post by a-dub »

sdrothrock wrote: post #16

Have you spoken with him about what he'd like? I think everyone has different tastes (both personal and also in relation to the types of hearing loss they have) and one of my buttons in particular is when people go out of their way to do everything... except ask what I prefer. For example, if he prefers to do video chats (I myself do), he may appreciate hand raising/visual cues before speaking (to context switch), cl…

maybe better to just raise the issue generally for yourself about how well the meeting/communication style is working and get everyone's feedback on collaboration tools and process so that no one is put on the spot. not only does this avoid singling anyone out, but it will capture all the problems (and hopefully solve them) regardless of whatever challenges people may be facing.

check in with your manager and hrbp before doing so though. you don't want to step on any laws or toes. (and hr may already have a program in place to help)

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#62

Post by unsupp0rted »

sdrothrock wrote: post #17
elil17 wrote: post #6

Is this a team mate at a US company? If so, note that Teams live captioning may not be enough to meet your non discrimination requirements. Your company may have a legal obligation to hire an ASL interpreter or human transcriber, including for in person meetings. My biggest recommendation is to use a phone call for audio because he can then use America’s free video relay service for ASL or captioned telephone service…

> Finally, something that people might not think about: If he misses something someone said and asks you what it was, never say "it's nothing" or "it wasn't important" or "it was just a joke" no matter how minor the comment was. Just repeat it no matter what. This is absolutely critical. It's hard enough to interrupt multiple times (especially when you need to ask about the same misheard thing multiple times) and bei…

100% this. I'm not deaf, but when working in foreign countries functionally I am. Repeating stuff back to me as "it's nothing" is extremely frustrating. I'd rather be the judge of "it's nothing".

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#63

Post by gc22browsing »

lostlogin wrote: post #59
GianFabien wrote: post #2

I am hard of hearing and lip read to assist with following conversations. I absolutely hate video conferencing tools. The sound is horrible and live captions are often incorrect. Very few people speak clearly enough for accurate captioning. I prefer to read and be shown rather than being told. I prefer email, and avoid voicemail. So if you are trying help your team mate, simply focus on alternatives to talking and li…

> so much good material is available in written form. Have you found a slide towards video occuring across resources? I can’t stand video as a learning tool, I want to skim read and focus on the bits that I don’t already know.

I'm annoyed by the number of videos. What's worse is that in most cases what takes 45+ minutes on a video could be read in 5-10 minutes in written form.

Where available I go for the transcripts.

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#64

Post by gc22browsing »

eurasiantiger wrote: post #33

I will never understand why people choose to have business meetings in the first place. In every scenario that doesn’t include personal introductions, everyone would be better off collaborating digitally. Perhaps we are still missing the tools to do that effectively. Crucially, I don’t mean we need another face-to-face/mouth-to-ear communication tool, or yet another way to write the same documents together. We need a…

Managers love meetings. Makes them feel important. And since nothing is written down, it allows them to deny or twist what they had said in the past.

Seems to me that the majority of people are extroverts and gain energy from social interactions. Those who are introverts and prefer to research and think are labelled as being on the spectrum by the majority.

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#65

Post by bombcar »

lostlogin wrote: post #58
bombcar wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there are ways to disable phone for Zoom calls ... but that needs buy-in (you can disable audio conferencing, and say it's for "security reasons").

Surely a manager directly approaching the individual and saying “don’t do that” is a better approach?

99.9% of these problems could be solved by a manager doing their job, but that's the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#66

Post by Sunspark »

When in video meetings with team members, there are often a few people who do not turn on their video camera because of some reason given like "they are shy" or something.

This is unacceptable because they have no problem with showing their face in the office instead of concealing it behind a veil.

These people need to be reminded that to be inclusive with this team member, they need to turn their camera on.

I remember one job interview I had, I had my camera on, and the two people interviewing me had theirs off. Difficult situation for me because it makes a difference in communication being able to see the person, and also, a job interview is especially difficult because one wishes to not upset the interviewer. But in retrospect, I think if this situation occurred again I would speak up and ask if it would be possible for them to turn on the camera.

Camera being on or off in meetings can be passive-aggressiveness.

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#67

Post by james_in_the_uk »

gc22browsing wrote: post #63
lostlogin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so much good material is available in written form. Have you found a slide towards video occuring across resources? I can’t stand video as a learning tool, I want to skim read and focus on the bits that I don’t already know.

I'm annoyed by the number of videos. What's worse is that in most cases what takes 45+ minutes on a video could be read in 5-10 minutes in written form. Where available I go for the transcripts.

“ Another thing to keep in mind is accessibility increases access for everyone, including non-disabled users. “ Haben Girma: https://habengirma.com/transcripts/wwdc_2016.txt

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#68

Post by throwmeaway1212 »

Sunspark wrote: post #66

When in video meetings with team members, there are often a few people who do not turn on their video camera because of some reason given like "they are shy" or something. This is unacceptable because they have no problem with showing their face in the office instead of concealing it behind a veil. These people need to be reminded that to be inclusive with this team member, they need to turn their camera on. I rememb…

This is overlay simplistic.

There are many reasons why people might have their cameras off, the main one that comes to mind is that it generally overly impacts women where there is a general (stupid) societal expectation that they have to look 'a certain way' (makeup , hair done etc). Having cameras off can mitigate this.

I personally like cameras on, but it isn't good for everyone, and is not a clear cut decision by any means.

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#69

Post by eurasiantiger »

gc22browsing wrote: post #64
eurasiantiger wrote: post #33

I will never understand why people choose to have business meetings in the first place. In every scenario that doesn’t include personal introductions, everyone would be better off collaborating digitally. Perhaps we are still missing the tools to do that effectively. Crucially, I don’t mean we need another face-to-face/mouth-to-ear communication tool, or yet another way to write the same documents together. We need a…

Managers love meetings. Makes them feel important. And since nothing is written down, it allows them to deny or twist what they had said in the past. Seems to me that the majority of people are extroverts and gain energy from social interactions. Those who are introverts and prefer to research and think are labelled as being on the spectrum by the majority.

I don’t believe there are ”introverts” and ”extroverts”.

I think these are labels we apply to behaviour, which places them squarely under ”fundamental attribution error”.

Re: Ask HN: Help me help my deaf teammate

#70

Post by eimrine »

HideousKojima wrote: post #49
klyrs wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your company should provide better audio equipment for those users.

They do, this guy insists on using his phone to join Zoom calls

Why not to connect an external USB mic to a desired smartphone?
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