What Would You Do If You Saw Someone Discriminate Against a Deaf Job
Applicant?
Hidden Cameras Reveal Bystanders’ Reactions When Discrimination Is Staged
Two young women walk into a coffee shop to apply for a job in the kitchen
when something strange happens: the manager seems oddly reluctant to let
them fill out an application. Then, in full view of customers, out it comes:
the real reason the manager isn’t interested in hiring them? They are deaf.
It’s a shocking violation of the law, or it would be if this weren’t an
episode of “What Would You Do?” The manager and the deaf job applicants are
actors. Of course the customers don’t know that. How will they respond to a
display of the kind of discrimination this country outlawed two decades ago?
This special WWYD was developed with the help of students and administrators
at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for
the Deaf, in Rochester, N.Y. It is the world’s first and largest technical
college for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
In an interview at the college, student Brenna DeBartolo said, “I have a lot
of respect for people who aren’t deaf, for people who are hearing. At the
same time, it would be nice for them to think about, ‘What is it like to be
a deaf person?’ I mean, how would they like to go into a place and want to
apply for a job and then be discriminated against just because of who you
are?”
Although they’re still in college, many NTID students already have an idea
of the difficulties they may face in the workplace. Maya Ariel told WWYD
that when she applied for part-time jobs in the past, “one or two places
never called me back.”
“From what I found out, they didn’t call me back because I was deaf,” she
said, speaking thorough a sign language interpreter.
Hannah Worek’s parents are deaf. “My dad right now, he doesn’t have a job,”
Worek said. “He got laid off. He’s been looking for jobs and it’s hard
because you have to get an interpreter every time you do an interview.”
The new president of NTID, Gerry Buckley, explains how employers are
supposed to treat a deaf or hard-of-hearing job applicant (or any disabled
applicant, for that matter).
“What should happen is that that deaf or hard-of-hearing person has an equal
opportunity to apply for the job, just like any person. The supervisor or
the employer … interviews them with the same kind of questions and scrutiny
that they interview anyone,” he said.
The employer should “really look very specifically at their skills, related
to being able to perform the work functions,” Buckley said. “Questions
related to accommodations or costs associated with accommodations should be
set aside (to) focus on whether the person has the skills to do the job.”
NTID is proud of its nearly 90 percent job placement record for graduates.
It’s hard enough finding and keeping a job in today’s economy, but for those
with a disability it is especially difficult. In January, the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission announced that allegations of workplace
discrimination hit an all-time high in 2010. The biggest increase came in
claims from workers who say they were discriminated against because of a
disability.
It’s a problem many thought had become history more than 20 years ago when
President George H. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law
in 1990. The ADA says if a worker with a disability is qualified to perform
the essential functions or duties of a job, even if they require reasonable
accommodation, they are protected from job discrimination.
Discrimination against the disabled is usually hidden. It may happen behind
closed office doors, or even in the mind of the employer who doesn’t want to
follow the law. But two decades after the passage of the ADA, we wondered
how regular people would respond if they could see the law flouted right in
front of them. So with the owner’s permission, we outfitted SmartWorld
Coffee in Morristown, N.J. with hidden cameras and waited for the morning
rush.
As the WWYD scenario got underway, NTID students Hannah Worek and Maya Ariel
played our job applicants. Another WWYD actor played the discriminating
manager of a coffee shop in need of a kitchen worker. When the women walked
into the shop and asked for an application, the manager blatantly announced
he wasn’t hiring any deaf people.
“I’m not going to hire a deaf person. I’m just letting you know. So we’ll
save you some time. … I mean you’re deaf, it’s going to be really hard for
you to work here,” he said.
Many customers looking on told us afterwards they were shocked. Some said
they planned to raise the issue later with the store owner. As the scene
repeated again and again throughout the day, some customers stared, rolled
their eyes, or grimaced, but few openly objected to the outright
discrimination they witnessed.
One striking exception was customer Gerald Tourgee. When he saw what was
happening, he turned to the manager and said, “Excuse me, are you aware of
the Equal Employment Opportunity laws? You just made a blanket statement
about not hiring a deaf person. You’ve made it very clear you’re not hiring
a deaf person. … If she takes the job and she’s not able to fulfill the
duties, that’s a different situation. But not to hire her because she’s
deaf, that’s absolutely discriminatory!”
After a long day of too many customers looking the other way, the outburst
was welcomed by our actors. But other responses were less kind-hearted and
some might shock you. Watch Friday night to see the surprising reactions of
some people who are supposed to be employment experts: human resource
workers and job recruiters.
For More Information
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces federal laws
prohibiting employment discrimination. Click here to find more details about
the Americans with Disabilities Act from the EEOC.
Video: (In case you miss on television)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/213121/what-would-you-do-deaf-to-job-discrimination
Article:
http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/witnessed-discrimination-deaf-job-applicants/story?id=12822039