Thanks to an employee’s initiative to “take a walk in a Deaf co-worker’s shoes”, staff from engineering consultancy Beca recently undertook Deaf Aotearoa’s DEAFinitely Aware course. Deaf Aotearoa trainer Victoria Skorikova and two interpreters worked with 20 Beca staff members at the company’s head office in Auckland.

Beca is a multidisciplinary consultancy providing planning, architectural,engineering and project management services to clients across the Asia-Pacific region.

Beca’s Auckland Building Services Section Manager Charles Roos says Mike Granger (Deaf) has worked for the company for nearly 30 years as a Computer Aided Draftsman. “A staff member felt there may be better ways to get Mike more integrated into the company and to understand what the issues are for him – see what life is like from his perspective,” says Charles.

“The outcomes from undertaking the workshop have been great. Staff are now more confident in approaching and communicating with Mike. In fact, learning the basics like how to enable better lip reading and ways to improve communication has had an impact on relationships between all staff.”

“Thanks to the workshop, most of my colleagues are using basic sign language and I am able to communicate with them more easily. I encourage all hearing people to attend one of these workshops, as you will understand how to work with Deaf people more effectively,” signs Mike.

For the workshop’s attendees the training was a real eye-opener into the Deaf community and its culture. He also feels that Mike benefited from the training by sharing his experiences and learning some things that he wasn’t aware of, including that in meetings he often made a lot of noise moving his chair to see faces.“

These small things have really resulted in a greater understanding of everyone’s needs.” Charles says Mike, with the support of his interpreter, is now teaching two new signs at Beca’s weekly staff meeting, helping  staff to build on the skills already learnt. “Staff who weren’t able to come to the training now also have the confidence to approach Mike.”

As for hiring a Deaf staff member, Charles firmly believes that if they have the right skills for the job then they should be considered on their own merit just as any other applicant.“We have found Mike to be dedicated and focused. He doesn’t get distracted easily and many engineers ask for him specifically to do their work.”