Elevating the Discussion Around Invisible Disabilities
Creating inclusive work environments that recognize and accommodate invisible disabilities like hearing loss can significantly improve the quality of life and job performance for affected individuals.
Discussion about invisible disabilities is incredibly important for improving the lives of those who have them. The challenges of an invisible disability go beyond the effects of the disability itself because individuals who have them are also often required to self-identify and self-advocate for accommodations. While self-advocacy can be an important skill, it can also be an exhausting, repetitive task. Being in a work environment that recognizes this and works to foster inclusive environments early, allows individuals to thrive whether they have an invisible disability or not.
Among the most common invisible disabilities is hearing loss. Talking openly about hearing loss—including its signs, symptoms and solutions like hearing aids—helps normalize it. By recognizing hearing loss instead of ignoring it until someone self-identifies, we can create accepting and inclusive environments. Workplaces can implement various reasonable accommodations to support individuals with hearing loss, helping them to excel.
Additionally, accommodations like captioned meetings, better acoustic environments and clearer communication in different modalities can create better experiences for all employees whether they have hearing loss or not. Therefore, it’s important to have discussions that highlight the hidden challenges these individuals face and what pre-emptive steps can be taken to mitigate them.
Challenges Faced by Workers with Hearing Impairments
To start, some obvious challenges arise when one has hearing loss. Environments where there are many meetings or lecture-style presentations can be difficult to follow when one has hearing loss, especially without any additional aids like hearing aids or captions. Combine that with a noisy work environment like on a job site or a place with background noise like music or machinery, and the ability to communicate can be heavily impacted. Also, while sleek hard surfaces are often more aesthetically pleasing and easier to clean, they provide many surfaces for sound to bounce and reflect off. When that happens, any speech a person wants to hear can become clouded and muddied.
For a person with hearing loss, listening in these types of environments can be exhausting and frustrating. In many cases they may attempt to avoid environments where they have the most trouble and choose to stick to roles with fewer communication needs, which may limit their job mobility.
