In my first entry I talked briefly about not telling my employer more widely about my hearing. The primary reason behind this is that I have never felt the need to say anything as I haven’t felt it would have any impact on what I do as part of my job. The second reason comes down to the experiences I have had previously when telling people about my hearing.

As mentioned in my first blog post, when I found out about my hearing deficiency and did the sensible thing and let the school know, one particular teacher’s reaction to it made up my mind for how I would, and who I would go about telling in future. I had been taught by this particular teacher in english lessons for most of the year before I found out about my hearing. The lessons were your average run of the mill lessons, nothing really stood out about his teaching style or lessons. Everyone has those lessons and teachers they most remember from back in school. If it wasn’t for this teachers actions my time being taught by him wouldn’t make the cut.

This teacher decided to approach things like he was the expert, and was going to change things for my benefit. His first point was how he had observed my head being turned more in one direction to hear what has been said. He also decided to tell me and my parents how much of an expert he was in teaching people with hearing loss. If there is one thing I have learnt about myself and seeing other people with a range of disabilities is not to treat people differently, or single them out. It doesn’t do either party any good whatsoever.All the other staff members at the school that knew took it as part of everyday life, as if well it hasn’t affected you so far so why should it change anything going forward.

When it came to applying for sixth form, jobs, and university I made the conscious decision to tick the no button to any questions about disability or any special arrangements I required should i be selected for an interview. I didn’t want people I didn’t know to find out or automatically be treated any differently to any other candidate as a result.

In applying for jobs including in the very recent past I have noticed some employers giving a higher priority or even a guaranteed interview for people with a disability if they meet a certain standard in their applications. As I don’t see myself as having a disability, (even though by definition I do) this approach by employers has never sat comfortably with me. In fact it’s encouraged me further not to tick those boxes and let an employer judge my application purely on its merits.

Even in my most recent application in having to apply for my own job, despite my boss knowing about my hearing I still chose not to tick that box on disability. I did though for the first time take longer to think about it this time round, which has been as a result of being more open about my hearing.

Disability and employment was a challenge I was set to work with at an event recently hosted by Birmingham City University. It brought together people from across the public sector as part of a data jam and challenge to find solutions to a set of problems. It was great to work with people from the university, DWP and third sector to look at how we get more people with disabilities into work.

It was really interesting to hear in particular from the DWP how both employers still struggle to get their heads around employing people with disability (although its improving all the time) and how people with a disability either don’t have the confidence to apply for roles, or like myself choose not to disclose on application forms when applying. It was also pleasing to hear examples of where a disability has later been discovered, or developed employers taking the right steps to accommodate the disability or in some cases create roles that utilised some of the skills that a personals disability enhances.

I came away with a couple of bits of new information that I didn’t know previously and one certainly needs greater attention. Firstly i learnt that there is a programme in place that employers can take advantage of and demonstrate they are well set up to employee people with disabilities. The programme is called “Disability Confident” and comes in 3 levels. I had never heard of it before, and really should have given some of my day job involves working to ensure young people with education health care plans or have other special educational needs are transitioning into employment following completing their studies. I also learnt that the most common disability amongst adults in the UK are mobility based, where as amongst children behavioural is the largest group of disabilities.

From deciding not to disclose at all about my hearing after the experience of one teacher at school until I left the data jam event, my outlook on hearing has changed. Although I still don’t think I’ll tick those boxes on application forms relating to disability, as I feel the quality of application alone should be enough to decide whether the application is taken forward or not. However in work I feel I can now be a little more open about my hearing, as there are definitely situations and occasions where it would be of a benefit to me and the people around me.