Pre-Employment
- Ensure upper-level management support.
- Clarify job requirements and job descriptions.
- Establish a TTY phone line in your Human Resources Department.
- Train the Human Resource Department to use the TTY effectively.
- Establish a 24-hour TTY Job Line.
- select competent, technically qualified applicants.
- Provide organizational literature for review before the interview.
- Provide a written itinerary if more than one person is interviewing.
- Inform your receptionist or secretary that you are expecting a deaf applicant.
- Ask deaf applicants about an interpreter.
- Prepare and gather orientation materials.
- Prepare co-workers.
- Discuss with managers and supervisors the best ways to facilitate integration.
- Determine deaf employees' communication preferences.
- Retain an interpreter, if necessary.
- Provide name tags for everyone.
- Familiarize employees with the work environment.
- Review schedules for lunch times and breaks.
- Give a guided tour of the facility.
- Affirm your availability to answer questions and provide support.
- Use an interpreter for the first day.
- Discuss appropriate work behavior and dress code.
- Rely on an employee who knows sign language.
- Provide an organizational chart.
- Provide written policies of the organization.
- Give deaf or hard-of-hearing employees information to read before the benefits meeting.
- Introduce employees to the benefits specialist.
- Use captioned films or videotapes, if available, that explain benefits.
- Review benefits booklet with employees.
- Keep employees up-to-date on policy changes.
- Make sure that all benefits terminology is clear.
- Ask the person how they prefer to be approached so that they are not startled.
- Install a light on the telephone to signal incoming calls.
- Rely on demonstration.
- Allow extra time for communication for training.
- Refer to clear, concise written instructions.
- Provide an outline of the training session.
- Get scripts of films and videos, and provide them for deaf employees in advance, or consider captioning.
- Assign someone to work directly with deaf or hard-of-hearing employees during the training period.
- Offer frequent breaks to mitigate visual fatigue.
- Consider the deaf or hard-of-hearing employees' communication needs in accessing information about career opportunities.
- Provide equal access to regular training required for promotions.
- Tailor training to the specialized needs of deaf or hard-of-hearing employees.
- Include deaf or hard-of-hearing employees in conversations.
- Share informal information.
- Include deaf or hard-of-hearing employees in work break activities.
- Distribute memos for social events; include time, date and place.
- Ask deaf or hard-of-hearing employees to organize social events.
- Provide opportunities for deaf or hard-of-hearing employees to get to know fellow employees.
- Invite deaf or hard-of-hearing employees to join you at lunch and coffee breaks.
- Assign someone to alert deaf or hard-of-hearing employees to emergency situations.
- Install flashing lights to work in conjunction with auditory alarms.
- Review safety procedures, including exits and alarms.
- Encourage deaf or hard-of-hearing employees to wear specially colored hard hats in construction areas.
- Use TTY or a vibrating beeper to contact deaf or hard-of-hearing employees in the event of an emergency.
- Notify security if deaf or hard-of-hearing employees are alone in work areas.
