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JAN-Fostering Deaf SuccessTuesday, March 13, 20181:45 p.m. Eastern Time

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>> Hello everyone. And welcome to the Job Accommodation Network's accommodation and compliance audio series. I'm Anne Hirsh and I will be the moderator for today's webinar. Before we start the program, I want to go over a few housekeeping items. First, if any of you experience technical difficulties during the webcast, please call us at 800-526-7234 for voice or and hit button five. Second, toward the end of the presentation, we'll have a question and answer period. But you can send in your questions at any time during the webcast to our e-mail account. Question@askJAN.org. Or you can use the question and answer pod located at the bottom of your screen. To use the pod, just type your question and submit it to the question queue. Also on the bottom of your screen, you'll notice a file share pod that you can use if you have difficulty viewing the slides or would like to download them. And finally, I would like to remind you that at the end of the webcast an evaluation form will pop up in another window. Please stay logged onto fill out that evaluation form. Now let's start today's program. Next slide.Today's session is very timely as today is the first day of National Deaf History Month. It runs through April 15th and is a celebration of contributions of the hard of hearing and deaf community to American society. On this slide you have a link to a page called the fascinating origins of deaf history month. I encourage you to check it out after the session is over.We are very lucky today to have two wonderful speakers for you. Kylie Baker and Bobby Siebert are with the Communication for the Deaf neighborhood. Kylie has been working in the H.R. and talent acquisition space for nearly a decade, providing full service recruiting, talent attraction management, and large tech companies like Google. After being introduced to the Deaf community in 2012, she quickly became an ally for

the community both socially and professionally. Prior to joining CSD, she worked for Indeed.com as a senior recruiter where she helped create the company's first visible and invisible disability inclusion group. She holds a B.A. in performing arts from the University of Northern Colorado. Bobby is a development manager at CSD. CSD Works, CSD Learns, and CSD Unites. He also acts as a community liaison collaborating with various organizations like JAN and schools to better serve and educate Deaf and hearing individuals via CSD community support neighborhoods. He holds a B.A. from Gallaudet University. Bobby is deaf and is working with an interpreter. If you notice silence or a delay, it's not a problem with the webcast. It's the interpreter Bobby working together. Welcome Kylie and Bobby. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to share your knowledge with the audience. And with that, I turn it over to you. Next slide. >> Hello everyone. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm thrilled to share a little bit about how we can foster a positive work experience. Let me stop. I forgot to mention that yes, this is Bobby speaking through Michelle, my ASL interpreter. And again, I'm really excited to be here to share with you a little bit of our knowledge on how you can foster success in the workplace of Deaf individuals. Our presentation today is full. And I'm excited to share it with you. Just a little bit of background on CSD. It's a non-profit organization that started as a grassroots community effort in South Dakota that started in 1975. The goal was to advocate access for ASL, American Sign language interpreters. From that small initiative, we've seen it grow 40 years later and evolve to over 900 employees and operations and all over the United States and also New Zealand.Our organization's mission is really to advance and enhance access and independence for the Deaf and Hard of hearing individuals. We pursue that mission through our different business units. One is CSD Creative. And that's a one stop full stack creative all inclusive marketing agency that focuses on attracting the Deaf market. And it provides services for video production to brand identification and graphic design. We also have Direct Connect. And we support different organizations, that supports different organizations' efforts to be successful in a call center program and they deliver in ASL. And Connect Direct provides one on one customer service solutions for Deaf consumers over video. Vineya is your ASL interpreting solution. It's a marketplace platform that makes the business life easier for requesting interpreters and it helps interpreter agencies become more efficient. And best of all, empowers the Deaf person with choices.The choices to choose which interpreter they'd like to use to help facilitate communication.Right now, Vineya nationwide works with over 1,000 certified ASL interpreters. So that brings us to CSD Neighborhood, which Kylie and I work with. We are very proud to call ourselves the heart of CSD's non-profit status. Our community faces challenges, and we try to meet those challenges with education and knowledge. And CSD Learns, which is an ASL-based non-profit learning program. We have featured courses that provide career-ready professional development and CSD Works is our employment services program that focuses on connecting job

seekers to the Deaf community. So overall CSD's current focus is on addressing issues with unemployment in the Deaf community. And we're providing employers with information and resources to increase opportunities for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. And this presentation is one of our ways of providing information to those employers. And I'll let Kylie take over at this point and share some more information about that.

>> KYLIE BAKER: Thanks, Bobby. Hi everyone. Kylie here. So today we really want to explore ways to promote Deaf success both in and out of the workplace through this presentation. Our hope is to promote inclusion by exploring the Deaf culture, demonstrating the value of working with Deaf employees, providing tips and strategies to prepare your workplace, and offering recommendations on accessibility accommodations and procedures that help employers attract, hire, train, and develop a strong and successful Deaf workforce. But if you have any questions throughout the presentation, about anything that we discuss, please feel free to post those questions in the chat for our moderators and we'll also do our best to answer them in realtime. At the end of the presentation, we'll open things up for Q&A. And we will also be including and providing a link to a follow-up form that you can use to reach out to us at any time now or in the future. So thanks again for joining us today. I'll kick things back over to Bobby and he's going to talk to you a little bit about the Deaf community and Deaf culture. Next slide please. >> BOBBY SIEBERT: Thank you, Kylee. For an employer to provide an inclusive workplace for Deaf people to be able to succeed, it's important that we have background knowledge on a Deaf person's experience, community, culture. Let's start by speaking about the deafness. It's often called the invisible disability. You can walk down the street and often pass a deaf person and maybe you don't even know it. There's no visible indicators of our disability. Really other than maybe a small medical device that would be in the ear. That could be easily overlooked. The deaf person may also be the only disability that enables a person to learn a new language and to find themselves in a new culture. In the United States, there are estimated to be over 28 million deaf or hard of hearing Americans. And that ranges from a variety of hearing loss from severe or profound hearing loss to a mild hearing loss. And over 24,000 children are born annually, are born Deaf annually. And 90% of those children born are born to hearing parents who may have never met a deaf person before. So I would like to also discuss a few misconceptions that I've noticed are very common. One is that some people assume that a person who is Deaf or hard of hearing are all the same in terms of communication and abilities. And that's found to be untrue. Just like any other demographic or group, they have their own unique preferences. It's the same with the Deaf community. Some people assume that all Deaf and hard of hearing people use sign language. That's untrue. Some don't sign at all. Some have minimal sign skills. Some are fully fluent. It depends on how a deaf person was raised. What kind of exposure they had to sign language during their upbringing. Another thought is that the person has a hearing aid or a cochlear implant, people assume that they can hear. They have full access to their hearing ability and they can

speak normally immediately after implant or hearing aid. Well, even if they have a hearing aid or cochlear implant, they still may or may not be able to speak well. Some have great skills with lip reading and great speech skills, however others prefer not to use their voice if they think it could be difficult to understand or have problems with gauging their own pitch or volume.The number one question that I as a Deaf person receive most frequently by a hearing person when they first meet me is can you lip read. And my answer is "sometimes."Studies show that only 30-45% of English, of the spoken word, can be lip read.It really depends on the situation. Even the most talented lip reader may have problems catching every word that is spoken.So just keep that in mind when you're communicating with a Deaf person. And I briefly mentioned before about communication preferences. And I think communication preferences is the single most important thing for a person to understand when interacting with a Deaf and hard of hearing person in order to provide a fully inclusive workplace to address the tools they need to be successful. If you understand clearly what that person's communication preference is, we can provide the tools and that makes the workplace more efficient and working with that person much easier.So we ask ourselves what factors impact a Deaf person's ability to communicate. One is when they become Deaf. How much residual hearing they have left. What is their family background? Their education level? How well can they speak? And their personality characteristics. For example, I'll use myself an as example. I was born deaf. I came from a Deaf family. My whole family communicates in American Sign Language. And that is my primary and preferred mode of communication. I also have a moderate hearing loss. And I did take a lot of speech classes when I was growing up. I can speak okay. I can use my voice probably good enough to order a Big Mac at McDonalds. But often I choose not to because when I do start to speak, people can understand me clearly, that hearing person. But when I speak to them, they think they can speak back to me clearly. And I often get lost. So communication doesn't become as efficient. And's why I prefer to use ASL as my mode of communication because I have full access.So other Deaf people who you meet will have their own preferences, their own choice, and their own background. Deaf people are part of a linguistic and cultural minority. As you mentioned, as Anne mentioned, we have Deaf history month, which is rich in our heritage. We are linked through language commonalities and experiences. I have mentioned ASL several times now and you may ask yourself what is ASL? ASL is a visual and spatial language that provides a user space and movement. And if you use a facial expression it's a fully formed language that has its own syntax and grammatical structure and rules separate from English. People who communicate in ASL and also know English may be able to lip read well or read and write English. It means that they're bilingual. The comparison is if you have someone in your workplace who was born speaking Spanish or French and later learns

English as their second language, their experiences would be the same.Some employers may be uncertain about hiring a deaf person. Maybe they've never met a deaf person before. And they have concerns about their own ability to effectively do their job. Or if they can accommodate the company's work style. At CSD, we like to emphasize that there are no deaf jobs. Deaf people have the ability to fulfill the majority of job descriptions. You may recognize some of the successful deaf people. Leah Katz-Hernandez. She was the reception to President Barack Obama. Or Nyle Dimarco, who won Dancing with the Stars, the reality competition a few years ago. Those are a few of the more well-known Deaf individuals. However, there are many Deaf individuals working in many industries. Restaurant owners, teachers, CEOs, comedians, chefs, and the list goes on and on. Next I would like to share a little bit about the value of hiring a Deaf person. Next slide please. When we talk about diversity, there is a lot of discussion around that today. How many people benefit greatly from a diverse work approach to hiring and cultivating an inclusive culture of many types, including the Deaf community? Deaf people are unique with their backgrounds and experiences and they can bring a unique perspective to your organization. We call that the Deaf effect. Deaf people also face barriers their entire life. That makes them great problem solvers. Remember, we spoke about 28 million Deaf and hard of hearing people across the United States. And they're a large number of our population. And that is an untapped labor skill pool for many companies who are looking to expand their labor force. They often overlook this community. If you can think creatively, you can really expand your pool of potential and qualified and skilled candidates for your company. One example is Amazon. They were looking to hire over 100,000 employees over the next 10 years. And they thought creatively and expanded their labor pool by including Deaf and hard of hearing candidates. Hiring Deaf people is also great for business. If you create a positive and welcoming environment that fosters success, you'll increase loyalty from the Deaf employees. Increasing retention by 100% and results in less turnover in the time and money you need to spend on recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new candidates. Hiring a skilled Deaf or hard of hearing employee does increase your diversity, but when you hire a Deaf or hard of hearing employee, it reflects positively to the Deaf community and can increase your revenue, as well. I hope you understand a little bit more about the value of hiring a Deaf individual. And next we'll talk more about how you can get started on that process, and I'll hand it over to Kylie. >> KYLIE BAKER: Next slide please Thanks, Bobby. Okay, you want to start hiring Deaf employees, but you're not sure where to start. We often consult with our employers in the early stages of planning to increase their diversity by hiring Deaf employers. If you walk away with nothing else when you think about hiring from the Deaf community, think about these early-stage steps.They're really critical in helping you be successful in implementing.So establishing your goals, this is a critical step. Maybe overlooking. But there's

different goals different areas of the organization. So what I mean by that is why do you want to hire in the Deaf community? Why do you want to increase your Deaf workforce. Is it to generally just increase diversity? Could it be that you're wanting to break into a new customer market? Or maybe you're passionate about having an impact on the Deaf or hard of hearing community. But making sure that organizationally you're aligned with your goals is important because then you know your plan of attack. You know what to look for when you start assessing your environment. And it is very important in the early stages to really assess your accessibility and inclusion environment. Both from a cultural perspective, your processes, the environment, how you interact, to the accessibility of your technology, tools, products, and any of those types of things. There are a lot of really great organizations out there that can help you start to identify what your needs are in terms of accessibility. CSD, we offer a workplace effectiveness survey. We call it the Deaf Friendly Workplace survey that helps you check your pulse on everything. And then you can partner with any number of organizations, recruiting agencies, technology companies, to do a full needs evaluation and start looking at onboarding and changing processes. And when you start to explore your resources, think creatively. Look internally first. Your existing employees. You may have more in-house support than you realize. It could come in the form of allies of the Deaf community, caregivers, family members of someone who is Deaf or hard of hearing. Even employees who have prior experience with the disability inclusion space. And an example that I often give when I was working at Indeed, Anne mentioned early on that we created the first Disability Inclusion Resource Group. We had no idea really where to start internally. So we put out a survey just gauging interest to see if anyone would want to help being on a planning committee. We didn't expect the results that we got. What we found out is not only was there a ton of support and interest for creating a program like this, but we had probably 10 times the amount of employees than we expected who identified as Deaf or hard of hearing or an ally of Deaf and hard of hearing. So look and you may find more support and resources than you thought you had.Another thing that oftentimes gets overlooked when you're looking at resource to help you build out an inclusion program is looking at other industry leaders. Whether that's within your network or, you know, outside of your own network. But other companies who are doing it well, who have successful inclusion programs around the Deaf community. A simple Google search or, you know, tapping into organizations like USBLN. A network of employers who are really hyperfocused on disability inclusion. And reaching out. You'll be hard pressed to find a company that's not willing to provide information and support, to tap them on the shoulder and say hey you have this really great program. How did you get started? What did you do? What resources did you rely on? What lessons did you learn? And then of course taking advantage of support organizations. A lot of free and low-cost resources out there. To learn the basics of successfully building new programs, recruiting, hiring and retaining Deaf employees.We'll share more about resources later and talk more about CSD's support and resources for employers.But moving on, the last piece in your early stages that is really important is to engage and educate your employees, we have this thing creating champions is the number one

thing you have to do before you kick off. Change management isn't possible without internal champions. You need to be transparent in your desires. You never know who may be part of your company. But also you are going to need, just like with any new process, the support of your employees to really buy in and foster change.Also, maintaining open lines of communication throughout the early stages of the process. And after. And a place where your employees and your team members can provide honest and open feedback. They can offer up their ideas, ask questions, and also share concerns. Fostering an environment where the stakeholders are the influencers, are the ones who are helping to promote and encourage their teams to embrace diversity is really critical. It's not just the diversity and inclusion or the H.R. team's responsibility to create and foster an inclusive environment. And then the last thing we always tell people when they're getting started, develop a training plan for your existing team. Preparing your staff. That could be H.R., recruiters, the hiring managers, people who will be interviewing candidates, an executive management team. Demystifying the experience of working with Deaf employees early on internally and providing that knowledge is the greatest way to overcome those common concerns. And I always say it turns worriers into evangelists and allies. Be transparent and communicate with your team and don't underestimate the internal resources you may have.Let's move to the next slide. Let's talk a little bit about some concerns. Bobby, I'll kick it over to you.Backing up. We were on mute.

>> BOBBY SIEBERT: Thank you, Kylie. You did a great job of how to get started. And I would like to get into a little bit more of the nuts and bolts of inclusion and engaging your workforce. What I really need to speak about are accommodations. What are the accommodations and the tools that you need to provide for the Deaf person, the Deaf or hard of hearing employee to be successful? And we're addressing the elephant in the room here. Kylie and I have worked with several employers in the past.And some concerns that are often brought up from them is the cost. They become that the cost of providing these accommodations could be expensive. And it could impact your ability to hire Deaf and hard of hearing individuals within the budget. So could you ask that question? Is it true or false?Next slide. And really that concern is false.Most accommodations have a nominal fee. Usually we're looking at the average cost of accommodations on an annual basis is under $500. The next slide we'll discuss more about what types of accommodations are available, that may be applicable to different situations. But before we move onto that, I want to share a new philosophy that helps understand and surround accommodations. And it addresses the perceptions of how accommodations are received. It's not just attached to the individual. An accommodation is not just attached to the individual. I want to share with you one story from John Macko. John is with the National Technical Institute

for the Deaf. He spoke and gave a presentation on hiring deaf individuals to an audience of employers. One employer asked a question about the cost concern that he has. He replied with what industry he was in. This individual responded that he was in I.T. Within that I.T. company, the gentleman started to discuss about the different things that you may need for I.T. You need a table, you need a laptop. You need paper, a pen, a chair, space, a building, maybe a conference room. There's a variety of different things that are required and they all have a cost associated with them. And they all help employees achieve and be successful in their job. And each of those costs are, each of those has a cost associated with them. So adding an interpreter to effectively with all of your employees should be assigned to the whole team in order to achieve success.Let's talk more about what accommodations are available.Next slide please. Before we get started providing any accommodation tools, you have to consider a few factors to decide which accommodations are the right fit. Earlier we discussed the Deaf community, and I touched on how Deaf people have their own unique communication preferences. So that is one of the first factors that you need to consider. What accommodation is appropriate? And I strongly encourage you to have a conversation with that Deaf employee and ask them "What tools will best fit in order to achieve success in their job?" And really with accommodations it's not a one-size-fits-all. It depends on the situation. An accommodation that I may need for a one-on-one conversation may be different than for what I need for a group setting. It varies.When providing accommodations, it's important to consider the setting. Is it an office or a workplace environment? If I'm sitting facing a window and the sun is shining on my eyes, I probably find it very hard to see the interpreter. So we may need to reorganize the work space so I can have full access.If it's very loud and noisy in the workplace, it may have other impacts that may need to be changed to achieve successful accommodations.So if we talk more about what kind of accommodations are available to Deaf and hard of hearing individuals, you know, most comely we start with ASL interpreters. ASL interpreters provide access in a variety of different ways. We have on-site interpreters. That's often the best and most preferred option for a Deaf employee, to have an interpreter physically there in person to facilitate the meeting. Another way is through video remote interpreting. That would be accessing an interpreter through a monitor. The interpreter would be on the screen, but offsite. So I would sit and watch the interpreter on the monitor or on the video screen. So while the other person is speaking, the interpreter would be signing on the screen. There is some benefits. It's easier for immediate, last-minute requests. But there are some limitations because the interpreter doesn't have full access to the context. So it could be limiting in that sense. The last option would be a video relay service. And that is through a video phone. They have interpreters offsite that a Deaf person, it allows a Deaf person to make a call to a hearing person through that interpreter. The restriction for that is that it must be

through a phone call.One consideration, if you want to use VRI or VRS is to make sure that you work with your I.T. department to resolve any potential broadband internet access issues or firewall issues that may arise.You can see here in the photo there is a gentleman sitting, watching the laptop in the middle of a meeting. That man right now is accessing that meeting through realtime captioning.Realtime captioning is a benefit for individuals who may be comfortable speaking for themselves, but have difficulty following the conversation auditorially. And they may or may not have ASL skills. Realtime captioning is a benefit for after the meeting also. You have a ready-made transcription of the meeting. Other accommodation devices include captioned telephone. Which as a Deaf person, I could call and use my own voice to speak for myself, but they have realtime captioning available on the device to follow along in the conversation.Some Deaf people prefer an amplification device. That's another option.So if we talk about the accommodations, they have some that are little to no cost, for example, e-mail. A messaging system such as Slack. And to be honest with you, as technology continues to evolve, it really makes the world more accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Tools like e-mail and Slack are really easily used in the workplace and a tremendous benefit for us. You know, you can also stick with old school pen and paper. For a quick one-on-one conversation. If they stop by your office, they can write a question and have a quick conversation through pen and paper.And just to wrap up this slide, in Austin, Texas there is a Deaf-owned restaurant. I'm located in Austin, Texas. It has a completely Deaf staff, Deaf owner. So when you go into the restaurant, you see the menu on the screen. And it's painted on the wall. And on the bottom left corner it has a sign that says "point and you'll receive." It's a creative way to provide no-cost communication for the deaf employees and customers. If you think creatively, you can find a low-cost accommodation that fits your needs. I'm going to hand it off to Kylie at this slide.

>> ANNE HIRSH: I just wanted to let you know real quick that we have about 20 minutes left.

>> KYLIE BAKER: Perfect. Thanks, Anne. So transitioning from talking about accommodation tools, I think it transitions nicely to start talking about the recruitment and interviewing process. One thing that's really important when you start looking at your talent acquisition process in terms of attracting Deaf talent is really considering the Deaf perspective. You're having experienced discrimination in many forms. The Deaf and hard of hearing candidates are often hesitant to reveal that they're Deaf or hard of hearing during the application process. However, when they get to the interview stage, they often face a difficult situation of revealing their disability to an employer. Just by requesting accommodations, knowing full well that this could impact their chances of getting hired, their working with, or applying to a company that isn't aware of the Deaf experience. In spite of the fact that companies should provide interpreters for steps like

phone interviews and in-person interviews as required by the ADA. All too often it puts a Deaf or hard of hearing candidate in an unfortunate situation where they're seen as more of a burden than other candidates. More difficult to communicate with, regardless of their qualifications or even how hard they try to create a strong first impression. This is a really, really common experience for Deaf job seekers. And it's something I think employers should consider when creating your application and interview process.So moving on. Keeping that in mind. We talk about finding Deaf job candidates. We get this question a lot from employers. Well how do I find this candidate pool? If you remember early on Bobby mentioned we have a saying here at CSD Works, which is there are no Deaf jobs. You find them in any place where you would find other job candidates. Yes, there are a few niche-specific organizations like CSD and a handful of others that connect employers directly to a large network of Deaf job seekers. But most Deaf job seekers have their resumes posted on all of the traditional avenues: Indeed, LinkedIn, company websites. They often work with staffing agencies. So we really encourage staffing agencies to connect with different disability communities. And if they don't, feel free to send them our way, and we'll help whatever agency you're using access the Deaf community. But also college campuses are a great place to find Deaf candidates. Gallaudet, NTID, RIT. A ton of schools with really successful Deaf graduates. And then the other really common way to access the Deaf candidate pool is through referrals. If you have a reputation as a Deaf-friendly employer in the community. As Bobby mentioned and we've mentioned a few times, there's a loyalty there. And word of mouth really is the number one, I would say the asset for any business, whether you're talking about recruitment or product selling. If you do well to present yourself as a Deaf-friendly employer, the Deaf community is going to know who you are.So moving onto the application process, however. I think more often than not the job search barriers for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals really begins right away at the application stage. We talked a lot about ASL versus English and ASL as first language. If you think about it most, all application processes are online and written in English. That includes the job description, the whatever steps are outlined for an employer's process to apply. Whether that's filling out a lengthy application form versus just being able to submit a resume. Or having really long pre-screeners. So it's important to assess the accessibility of the application process. What things can you do to tighten that process up and make it easier for all job seekers? Not just Deaf and hard of hearing job seekers. Many of you who are in the recruitment space probably know the value of that one-click approach to the application process. And it's an easy change to make for most employers to keep things short, sweet, and to the point. And it also helps you be more accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing community. I mentioned job descriptions.One example of how we support clients is through providing ASL translation for job descriptions. What that means is you have your job description written in English and then we transcribe it into the proper syntax and grammar for written ASL. And we also can provide ASL video translations of your job descriptions. That's something that we're doing for a couple of clients right now. So that's always a cool option. Not necessarily the most scalable, if you have a thousand jobs. Work with the transcription is probably

easier. But it's a little thing that you can do to make a huge difference to open your company up to Deaf and hard of hearing job seekers.And then when it comes to scheduling interviews, like I mentioned, that's usually the first time a Deaf or hard of hearing candidate is facing disclosing their hearing loss by requesting accommodations. So one of the tips that we give employers as a best practice. And there are several organizations out there. Maybe even some of your organizations doing this now. Having a standardization whenever a candidate is reached out to by a recruiter or hiring manager for the first time, always offering an accommodation. Just asking hey if you happen to need an accommodation to make this phone call happen or come on site, just be part of your standard messaging. Offer it from the very beginning. It shows them that you are considering candidates with disabilities, that you are aware, and oftentimes it makes them feel more comfortable. It demonstrates you as an employer who is not going to be swayed by a candidate providing accessibility support. As a company who is already prepared to provide it and that really demonstrates that you're a company that cares about inclusivity. The other thing with interviews I think that in my experience came up a lot when we were starting to recruit from the Deaf community was considering the length of interviews. Oftentimes there are multiple stages to an interview. Perhaps you have a technical interview where a candidate is going to need to have a screen up and perform some technical task or demonstrate their work. If you're timing these especially, consider extending the length of the interview for the candidate to focus on the interpreter, understand the instructions, ask questions, and then be able to refocus on the screen to do their task. Little things like that can make a huge difference.And then that kind of brings me to handling the interpreter requests. It's the employer's responsibility to provide this service. So be prepared. It's one of the most important things you can do on the front end in the preparing the workplace stage is really get resources on different ways to access interpreters. Whether like Bobby said through VRI or live interpreters. Have those resources ready and on hand. Vymea, as we mentioned is one of our products. It allows the candidate to choose their interpreter. It's something that you can easily link into when scheduling correspondence for candidates.Another thing that you should consider and should try to do whenever possible if it doesn't spoil the milk. Get any material that you can to the interpreter prior to the interview. It really helps to speed things up. It helps to make sure that the interpreter and the candidate both understand what's being asked. And for example, if someone is going to talk about UI or UX, and an interpreter might not understand that and might require a little more time to communicate with the candidate so that the candidate has the opportunity to put their best foot forward and demonstrate their skills, without having to worry or not whether the interpreter who is not being interviewed understands the lingo or the terminology or the industry.So yeah, providing questions in advance. Sending the job descriptions, any language that would be important. And then a lot of times the candidates prefer to know the name and contact information of the interpreter so they can meet. If you're scheduling it, offer an introduction to the interpreter to the candidate so they can spend a few

minutes prior to the interview calibrating their communication. Making sure they understand each other's grammar and syntax and how they speak. It's really just a nice offering for candidates to have. It helps them be more comfortable and helps the interpreter be more comfortable.Etiquette 101. We talk about this a lot with our clients. And we won't get into the weeds with this. But it's important to know that the situation is already unique when you're not used to working with a Deaf individual. So preparing your hiring managers are important. There are a few tips to keep in mind when you're going through an interview with a Deaf or hard of hearing candidate and an interpreter. Deaf people listen with their eyes. A Deaf person can't look at an object at the time listen to you as you describe how to use it. It helps if you talk and give them a moment to transition. Also, when using a sign language interpreter, the interviewer should speak slowly and directly to the candidate and not to the interpreter. Continue to make eye contact with the candidate. That's who you're talking to, right? The Deaf or hard of hearing candidate may not always look at the interviewer, because they need to look at the interpreter to receive the message. But the eye contact gesture on the interviewer side is very appreciated and culturally appropriate for the Deaf or hard of hearing candidate. Speaking directly to the candidate. Rather than saying tell him or her. And speaking to the interpreter as though the candidate isn't there. I think it's sometimes a reflex if you have never worked with an interpreter before. But again, it goes back to preparing your hiring managers and your interviewers on the front end. Next slide please. So you've hired your Deaf employees.Onboarding and retaining is the next thing that is important to consider. Really it just begins, retaining any employee begins with seeing diversity as an asset and really fostering that in your environment. So making sure that you're constantly thinking about and providing things like training and support, cultural competency training for all employees. It can create a really great work environment. And it's not only limited to the Deaf and hard of hearing individuals that you hire, but also other people with diverse backgrounds. You know, support in terms of creating employee resource groups and inclusion groups that also opens the door for inclusion opportunities. It's a cultural awareness that can spread through your company without needing a ton of resources. Also thinking about open communication platforms. Once a Deaf or hard of hearing individual is hired, it's important to make sure that there aren't any existing barriers at your work site. And this can be achieved through opening communication channels with that Deaf and hard of hearing individual and their colleagues who will be working with him or her. And taking the time to learn about your new Deaf or hard of hearing employee's communication preferences when it comes to accommodation and communication. And then making sure that that is made aware to the entire team. And anybody that might be collaborating with them. And then, again, inclusion opportunities. Create those affinity groups. Create an employer resource group. One of the things that we do with some of our clients is offer ASL classes on site or online. Open it to anyone who might be interested. Not only does that help communication, but it really boosts the environment in positive ways. So, you know, if your work environment is positive for your Deaf and hard of hearing employees, they're likely to do better, feel

more invested in the company, refer other people to your company. You know, this doesn't only mean giving accommodations. It also means really, really believing and fostering and supporting the individual's capabilities and giving him or her more responsibilities. Giving them the same opportunity that you give any other employee. Remember, the Deaf community is small, it's close knit. Word gets around when you're an inclusive employer who really fosters Deaf success and brand loyalty is important for all of us. So with that, we're going talk a little bit about some resources and then we'll open it up to Q&A. So be thinking about your questions. Anne, if we could switch to the next slide please. So just really quickly, again we're going to provide all of these links and follow-up information for you after the presentation. We want to be mindful to save room for questions. But we do get a lot of questions about the offerings and the resources that CSD provides. So we're going to give you a quick high-level overview of that. Bobby talked about a couple of the other service lines outside of CSD Neighborhood. So I'm just going to focus on Neighborhood stuff here. So underneath CSD Neighborhood, we have CSD Works, CSD Learns, and CSD Unites. CSD Unites is all focused on community impact. For example, right now we have a campaign. I think it's probably just wrapped up today.Make yourself count. We reached out to and surveyed over 3,000 people in the Deaf community to get their thoughts on their experience, the Deaf effect, the experience that they have, and collect data to be able to share with employers or policymakers. So CSD Unites is just a really awesome part of our neighborhood.CSD Learns is oftentimes when we talk about our career center, CSD Works and CSD Learns go together. CSD Learns is an online learning platform. Similar to any LMS system that you may provide. All provided in ASL. All of these classes are free to the Deaf community. And we're also building out a library of resources and supports for employers, as well.And CSD Works, which is typically what we're referring to when we talk about our career center. Here employers can come to get support for preparing their workplace, post jobs on our job board that are directly connecting them to Deaf job seekers. The resume database that we're building right now, both general public Deaf job seekers, and Deaf job seekers who are going through and completely workforce preparedness training through CSD Learning. So you have a great skilled, ready to learn Deaf candidate there. Employer tool kits to make sure that you have everything that you need when it comes to attracting, hiring, and retaining Deaf talent. So tons of information that you can find there. Always feel free to reach out to us on that website. And again, we're going to provide you some links to follow up with us after this.And, you know, remember we partner with some great organizations like JAN. USBLN is another great resource if you're looking to just get information on how to create a Deaf-friendly environment. Connect with other employers who are doing that. Connect with companies who are passionate and driven and motivated to make an impact. And share those best practices. We're running low on time. I'm going to wrap the CSD Neighborhood chat there. And open it up for questions. So Anne?

>> ANNE HIRSH: Okay, thank you Kylie and Bobby. That was a great deal of information. We have a number of questions and we're not going to get to most of them. But they have agreed to respond to all the questions afterward. We do want to put a shout out. We have an EEOC investigator who wanted to say great information and encouraged people to check out EEOC.gov to learn more about employment discrimination.The first question, I think we'll have time to sneak in one question. Bobby, this goes way back to the beginning when you were talking about lipreading. Is it appropriate to ask a Deaf person if they can read lips? >> BOBBY SIEBERT: I don't want to tell you that it's not appropriate. But I will say that Deaf people get that a lot. That usually happens in the initial encounter phase, they would typically ask that question. I wouldn't say it's not appropriate. But do be aware when you ask that Deaf person, they probably have heard that a million times. >> KYLIE BAKER: I would add, too, it's totally okay to ask what their communication preference is. If it's not made obvious in that first encounter, it's okay. What is easiest for you? Do you prefer to sign?

>> ANNE HIRSH: That's a great point. Thank you all for attending. That's all the time we have. We will definitely get these great questions answered in writing through follow-up e-mail. If you want additional information, feel free to contact us. We thank you for attending. And also thank you for Alternative Communication Services for providing the net captioning. We hope the program was useful. As mentioned earlier, an evaluation form will automatically pop up on your screen in another window as soon as we finish. We appreciate your feedback and we hope you'll take a minute to complete the form. This concludes today's webcast.