Category: Deaf and Hard of Hearing People at Work

Crystal Schwartz is an independent contractor with an interesting job.  She is a Health Educator and Counselor to clients with HIV or at-risk.   Crystal works with different hospitals and counsels deaf and hard of hearing patients about healthy living and sex education with HIV.  She hosts workshops on topics related to HIV and healthy living.

Crystal didn’t intend to get into counseling at first.  She attended Gallaudet University for three years and while in Chicago on an internship, she finished up her degree in Business Administratation at the Robert Morris College. 

“I first became involved as an educator/counselor by volunteering a lot with the HIV program and through networking,” said Crystal.

Crystal left full-time work and switched to the part-time counseling job to allow more flexibility and time with her children.  Crystal is a mom to three deaf children.  She has been a Health Educator and Counselor for seven years.

“I’m blessed to be able to help so many people,” she said.

Today, Crystal is back in school, aiming for her graduate degree in Management.  She’s also hard at work, writing her first book.

Shawn on left,
Mike on the right

At the Federal Aviation Administration building in Illinois, two deaf guys, Shawn Lockhart and Mike Dyas work in rotating shifts to keep the facilities humming along. Shawn and Mike both work as an Airway Transportation Systems Specialist. Both men graduated from NTID/RIT with a degree in Electromechanical Technology.

“We provide system support to air traffic controllers,” explained Shawn. “They really depend on our systems to function properly in order to do their jobs.” Mike and Shawn are responsible for keeping the control center “out of the dark.” They check to make sure the primary and secondary systems, including the heating and cooling, alarms, batteries and generators are always in order.

Mike was the first to be hired at the FAA facility. After graduation, he worked at Eastman Kodak in Rochester but soon realized that he wanted to move back home to Illinois. An employment advisor from the Rochester Institute of Technology pointed him in the direction of the F.A.A.

“I left Rochester immediately and started knocking at the door of the F.A.A. Regional Office headquarters for Great Lakes,” said Mike. Mike worked with Linda Ross, who oversaw the disabilities hiring program. Linda suggested that he meet with the administrator at the Aurora office. At first, the administrator was reluctant to meet with Mike.

“After a brief interview, they took me on a tour and the managers were so impressed with me. From there, I was the first deaf person to be hired to work in the control center as an engineer technician,” said Mike.

Shawn started working at the F.A.A. facility four years after Mike was hired. Mike and Shawn don’t often see each other on the job due to the rotation in their shifts, but their shifts occasionally overlap for two hours.

“I love my job and it is challenging,” said Shawn. “People don’t often realize how complex our jobs are. Systems don’t discriminate. It’s all about getting the job done. Deaf or hearing—it doesn’t matter. You just have to have the knowledge and skills to keep the systems running.”

“I love this job because we face so many different, challenging problems each day,” Mike agreed. “We get to tackle the problems, troubleshoot the solutions and repair them as quickly as we can to keep the National Airspace System running.”

When I first came across Mark Drolsbaugh’s books,Deaf Again and Anything But Silent I ordered both books right away. I tore through both books, laughing and nodding along. I felt as if Mark had wrote about my life! I had the opportunity to contribute a chapter of my life in his third book, On the Fence. I always recommend those three books to everyone I meet and my copies are always being lent out.

Mark is a great guy with a wonderful sense of humor and I sure hope he ends up on Oprah some day because he would have Oprah cracking up in the first fifteen minutes with his wry sense of humor.

I had Mark share a bit about his life:

Tell me what a typical day is like for you at work.

As a guidance counselor at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, I work primarily with the secondary department. Each grade level in high school has one advisory session per week. Advisory sessions last one hour and cover numerous topics with the goal of preparing students for college, vocational training, and/or the work force. In Junior High School, we run a weekly PALS session — Peers and Leadership Skills — with the goal of preparing students for the transition to high school. I also have the thrill of collaborating with the World of Work program at PSD which focuses on job skills and job placement. On top of all that, we’re currently revising our counseling program so that its in accordance with the ASCA (American School Counselors Association) National Model–a lot of exciting changes are in store.

Usually there are two advisory sessions a day and there are also opportunities to join students in the classroom. On top of that there are individual grade/credit reviews for each student throughout the year and college visits, guest speakers, and community service. No two days are exactly alike so it never gets boring!

Is this a job, a career or a calling for you?

All of the above!

Give me a little history on how your life lead up to this current position at work.

Well, I was bumbling along as an accounting major at Temple University back in 1988 when there was this little incident at Gallaudet University that caught my attention. I transferred to Gallaudet in 1989 and went through a total metamorphosis. Gina Oliva (author of “Alone in the Mainstream: A Deaf Woman Remembers Public School”) refers to this as the “Met Deaf, Wow!” phenomenon. The opportunity to attend a school with other deaf peers and role models had a profound impact. I switched majors and became a serious writer on the side. I wound up working a newspaper columnist for DeafNation, Silent News, and SIGNews for a while before branching off on my own writing projects.

What are some of the goals you’ve set for yourself down the road?

Quite frankly, I’m at a crossroads right now. It’s exciting at PSD what with the counseling program aligning itself with ASCA. At the same time, my wife Melanie and I both run our own business, Handwave Publications, and what started out as a side endeavor has grown into something much bigger than expected. We’ve got three books published, a childrens’ book is waiting in the wings, and I’m about to collaborate on another book with two former Gallaudet classmates.

Also, Handwave Publications isn’t just for books — we’ve got two websites up and running. They are Deaf Culture Online and Unique Fitness Tips. Deaf Culture Online
is more like an advocacy/informational website (with the infamous Drolz Uncensored blog included in there) while Unique Fitness Tips is designed for people who love to work out but simply don’t have the time. It’s a tremendous thrill to be able to run a home business that’s based on your passion. I love the Deaf community and I’m a fitness fanatic, so to be able to write about both isn’t a job — it’s a blessing. Somewhere down the road I’d love to see Handwave Publications expand and become a full-time commitment.

At a recent Illinois Hands & Voices Parent Connection meeting, a parent shared her heartbreak when her young deaf son expressed a desire to grow up and become a fireman. “I know he won’t be able to be a fireman, but there’s other things he can do,” she said.

Oh yes, I told her, he can become a fireman. And girls can grow up to be firefighters as well. I told her about the firefighter I knew who worked in a town near me. About Mike McConnell, a forest hydrologist who is trained to fight fires as well. And about a volunteer firefighter that I found through a blog, the Deaf Firefighter’s Blog.

The mom’s eyes grew wide. I could see her attitude shifting, to one of great hope for her son’s future as another barrier came tumbling down.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Neil McDevitt, a volunteer firefighter with the Montgomery Township Fire Department in Pennsylvania. Neil has been a volunteer with the department since 2003. When he’s not on duty, he works full time as a Program Director for the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network (CEPIN) at Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI).

“Our program is a FEMA-recognized training partner,” said Neil. “We developed a class called “Emergency Responders and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community: Taking the First Steps to Disaster Preparedness” and we’re also working on some other new programs as well.”

Neil wears a pager at all times and “Yes, I sleep with it on,” he shares. As a firefighter, Neil has encountered house fires and car accidents where people have died but he prefers to focus on the positive attributes of his job.

“My most memorable experience happened a few months ago. A group of students from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia came to my fire house for a tour.” Neil had planned to teach his regular session on fire safety, but when the students arrived, he quickly realized that he needed to switch his approach to include the deaf students with developmental disabilities.

“I wanted to give the kids some hands-on activities, so I asked a firefighter to start one of the trucks and lay out a small hose line. We set up some cones and put tennis balls on top of them. Then we gave the kids the hose line and told them to knock the balls off.” Neil took great delight in seeing the smiles on the student’s faces. “What really made it special for me was one young boy who was severely developmentally disabled—he showed no expression during any of the previous activities and he suddenly lit up in a big smile when he touched that hose line.”

When Neil first began as a volunteer, he taught a class on non-verbal communication. “My reasoning for this was that firefighters already use a lot of non-verbal communication but they never really consciously thought about it,” said Neil. “Rather than teaching ‘ASL101’ and forcing them to learn something new, I personally feel it’s more effective to make them more conscious of what they’re already doing.”

One of the tough aspects of the job is the challenge of funding interpreters for meetings and trainings. “I know it’s easy to say that it is required by the Americans With Disabilities Act—that they should be paying for it, period. If it was a paying job, I would have no problems requesting interpreters left and right,” said Neil. “However, this is a volunteer organization and my feeling was, if I came in ‘demanding’ interpreters, then I would win the battle but lose the war.” Neil, instead, tried to use creative approaches to cover the cost of interpreters. For trainings held by the county or a training academy, the interpreters were willingly covered upon request. Neil was able to obtain a small grant from Prudential Insurance company to cover the cost of interpreters for other meetings.

Neil has plans in the works to include a new position into his role as a volunteer firefighter. “Right now, I have a proposal with the Chief to create a Public Information Officer position in the department and assign me to that role,” said Neil. “We’ll be meeting to discuss that a little later in the year. Basically, the Public Information Officer is the person who works with the media and public to inform them of what’s going on with the incident.”
For every mom of a deaf and hard of hearing child who dreams of being a firefighter, Neil has this to share: “It really is a rewarding job. You’re giving back to your community, helping people in a very real and tangible way. Even if a deaf person isn’t the one in front of the hose and putting the water on the fire, they’re all working toward a common goal. I hope I never have to use American Sign Language for a deaf victim (especially since I know practically every deaf person in the township!) but I also know that I bring a talent to the table that very few departments are able to.”