Being a deaf developer

As another deaf developer (severe-to-profound loss), this is absolutely on point. A lot of the traditional techniques that work for most companies don't work for me, especially when it comes to pair programming. I strongly dislike group stand-ups, because I never know who's going to talk next.

One of the other things I've found myself struggling with is when to tell someone that I have a hearing loss. I feel like if I do it in the first interview, I'll set off unconscious biases, and during the hiring meeting someone will think, "Well, he can't hear shit, which might make it harder to get things done over time", and I won't get the job. On the other hand, once I get that offer and accept, then they're already invested in me, and a little bit of extra effort would be worth it. I tend to go back and forth on it. Some interviews I say it straight up, others I wait until I get an offer, and sometimes I only mention it if I think it's interfering somehow with the progress of the interview or project (e.g., I find myself saying "what" a lot or mishearing what they said).

It's a tough problem, and I wish I felt more confident about how other people would respond to that knowledge. I usually feel... safer?... when I've already secured the position, but honestly, I've never had a bad reaction to it from anyone, so maybe I'm just overthinking things.

I'm rambling now. Anyway. Totally agree with the post.

Interesting! I'm in a very similar situation (congenital profound hearing loss, implanted in left ear at 16), but in a country (Japan[1]) where the primary language is not my native language (English).

> The biggest hurdle in most cases is communication, especially in meetings. That being said, I still do fine in them, because I rely on lip reading as well as vocal cues/context, but I also rely on my coworkers to be understanding from time to time, and they are.

I definitely concur with this. Meetings can be a pain depending on the environment (for example, some people prefer to meet in cafes etc. since meeting space is at a premium here). Body language (looking away, looking down, mumbling into hands, hiding face in papers, etc.) can also make meetings incredibly hard. The hardest part for me, personally, is the sheer stamina required to be "always on" and track everyone's eyes to make sure I know who's talking (in a meeting of ~15-20 people) so I can look that way and try to read their lips.

Telephone communication is also a big problem. No matter how often I tell people about my disability or how quickly I respond to e-mails/chats, they will still insist on calling me for "urgent" things. [Edit: Sometimes I think I should deal with this by simply ignoring all phone calls, but practically speaking I'd rather not exacerbate a potential emergency by not responding. The counterargument is that I could exacerbate an emergency by responding and not understanding ~50% of the content of the call...] My theory is that because I'm largely functional in person, they still subconsciously expect me to be able to use a phone normally.

> this usually comes up around the topic of phone interviews, I can't do them. People appreciate this

Interesting. I almost always have the opposite reaction; people try to be accommodating, but it's almost always still focused around doing voice via electronic connections rather than the text format I request. "What if we use a normal telephone? What if we use VoLTE? What if we use Skype instead? What if we get you a headset? What if we use Skype video or Facetime?"

> I've never had the situation where the job/culture/people fit was there but it didn't happen because of a communication issue.

Same here. For me, typically if it's a communication issue, it's because the people/culture weren't interested in being accommodating.

[1] As a side note, Japanese is extremely hard to lip read because it doesn't use the upper lip much, or at all in some dialects. There's also a lot of cultural stuff that makes life difficult: masks (either prevention or because the speaker is sick), the tendency to cover the mouth, and the tendency to not look at other people during meetings or when having a confrontation -- when communication is really important.

I've been a developer for about fifteen years, and for the past four I've been dealing with progressive bilateral hearing loss related to an autoimmune condition. It's been a struggle to adapt, and one of my big fears is if I have to move between companies whether I'll be able to get past the easy discrimination that can happen in the hiring process. My current company has guidelines for assisting impaired employees, but it's easy to get weeded out in an interview just because the interviewer doesn't like you.

My mom is deaf, and my dad nearly so. Something that staggers me is that businesses -- even those that are 100% in the digital age -- can't communicate with a deaf person. I'm talking about health insurance, utilities, etc., where the person on the other end of the phone line is sitting in front of a computer, but has no facility for text chat or e-mail.

It's the smaller businesses, typically low-tech, that seem to accommodate her just fine: "Oh, you're deaf. Here's my e-mail address."

>> The stereotype of a programmer as a solitary eccentric who’s allergic to human company is unfair and inaccurate. As a group, we’re a very social bunch.

I'm a disabled programmer too. In my case, it's autism so statements like this make me cringe. It puts up an exaggerated effigy of some weirdo with asperger syndrome so neurotypicals can say "We're not like that guy!"

Programmers need a quiet place to work. But that's a hard thing to even reach for if you're also trying to distance yourself from the "solitary eccentric". Socializing is generally noisy. A deaf person just spread sentiment that fundamentally encourages the raising of noise levels. I'm not sure how to respond to that.