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Making Work Meetings and Trainings Accessible for Deaf Employees

Deaf employees, like any other employees, deserve the right to be involved and receive full access to meetings and trainings. With this in mind, our communications support executive Yew Hau [...]

Dec 9, 2021
#SPDStories

Deaf employees, like any other employees, deserve the right to be involved and receive full access to meetings and trainings. With this in mind, our communications support executive Yew Hau En, developed a guide to help employers support their deaf employees in navigating work meetings and trainings.

Here are some snippets of the guide which will come in handy for employers, training providers and even co-workers who seek to make their workplace a more inclusive and welcoming one for their deaf colleagues.

Text - Tip for physical session: Determine the employee’s communication preferences. It could be through a sign language interpreter or notetaker, through speaking in person, or in other ways. Only then will you know how to give the employee the best communication access you can.

Text - Tip for physical session: Conduct the session in a suitable environment. Make sure that the room is well lit and away from distracting background noise, especially for those who are wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants. This will help the deaf employee see the facial expressions and/or lip movements of other attendees. Avoid backlighting, both from windows and artificial light sources, on speakers and interpreters, as it is challenging for the employee to see
and take in the information.

Text - Tip for virtual session: Ensure that the employee hides “non-video” participants if he/she is using an interpreter, while showing gallery view. This is to avoid cluttering up the platform with too many video screens, which makes it hard to see what is being signed.

Text - Tip for virtual session: Make use of live captioning functions in video conferencing platforms. Other than Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet which are often used for meetings and trainings, Microsoft Powerpoint and Google Slides have closed captions (CC) functions.

More tips on engaging deaf employees in meetings and trainings can be found in the full e-guide. To receive the e-guide and video guide, please connect with us here.