natalyad

I've been trying to think of things to write about for the #DeafMust campaign. I keep thinking . o O ( I'm lucky, I haven't had much discrimination for my deafness... ) before thinking of yet another example...

After I graduated from university I started applying for jobs, some at the local library service as my degree is in information management and these looked like viable entry level jobs. One of the librarian jobs I applied for had a "tour of the library" with info being provided about parts of the job.

A small group of us going for this job were shown the main library area for shelving books, front desks for loans and returns of books and other materials, public computers where patrons needed technical support, the back office for moving books around and logging them in and out of the computer system and finally the other office where staff handled incoming calls or phoned people about overdue loans.

The idea of the role was that everyone did all of these 5 activities in approximately equal amounts. As I'm deaf and I can't hear the phone I asked the guide if there was likely to be a chance that I could swap phone-shifts with colleagues and cover more of the other roles, especially technical support of public PCs which we were told most staff hated. I explained that it would be dishonest of me to try and do phonecalls which I couldn't hear.

The reply was "No, that would not be possible, everyone has to be treated the same".

I was quite shocked at this, as I knew that employers were supposed to make adjustments for disabled staff, and I thought I was making a reasonable proposal. I wasn't being lazy, I was being honest... I can't 100% remember now, but I think I ended up withdrawing my application.

I now know that response was probably unlawful.

Sadly "We have to treat everyone the same" is very common. BUT (while I am not a lawyer), it is almost certainly not a legitimate justification for not making an adjustment for deaf or disabled employees.

And finally, while I emphatically do not believe "you asked the wrong person" or "you asked in the wrong way" as excuses for not making adjustments - in this case, that guide was probably not the best person for me to have asked. It wasn't her decision to make. If I had asked HR or a senior manager I may well have been able to get phones changed for me as I has been done in other jobs I have had. I am confident none of my colleagues have resented me not using the phone, I make up for it in other ways.