What Recruiters Should Consider When Hiring People with Hearing Disabilities

In light of ongoing digital transformation, a previous post highlights recruiting automation strategies companies and organizations can utilize for more productive and efficient talent acquisition. Such strategies include identifying gaps in the talent pipeline before selecting the technologies to integrate into the process, as well as training human resources personnel on recruitment technology use for more successful adoption.

Besides adopting new technologies, another effective way to invest in organizational growth and success is to build a diverse and inclusive workforce. Beyond expanding gender and ethnicity representations in the workforce, this step involves hiring people with disabilities and allowing them to thrive across various fields and occupations.

A report by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that individuals with disabilities account for 13% of the total US population, but only 22.5% of them were employed in 2023. Although this is the highest recorded ratio since 2008, adults with disabilities are still less likely to be employed than those without, especially if they are deaf or hard of hearing.

As data also shows that only 54% of the deaf population are employed, below are steps that recruiters can take to provide more inclusive opportunities and achieve a more diverse workplace.

Ensure your hiring processes are inclusive

Diversity and inclusion must start with evaluating your hiring processes and ensuring they don’t exclude individuals with hearing disabilities from gainful job opportunities. Thus, a Forbes article guides hiring managers through writing job descriptions, mainly by using “universally understandable terms” that accurately reflect the specific requirements of the role without bias.

In the context of hiring individuals with hearing disabilities, this involves clarifying what type of communication skills are required since including written communication can qualify them for the role. Since hearing loss or impairments can also affect interviews, consider alternative interviewing formats, such as doing video calls with a sign language interpreter or extending the interview duration to give them ample time to process the conversation.

Utilize assistive technologies in the workplace

Being inclusive shouldn’t begin and end with recruitment, so ensure that your workplace is equipped with the right technologies to meet the unique needs of employees with hearing disabilities. This might mean introducing hearing glasses as innovative hearing solutions that go beyond the form and function of conventional hearing aids by being less bulky and coming in wearable frame styles. Specifically, Nuance’s all-in-one eyewear for vision correction and speech comprehension uses a proprietary beam-forming technology to improve sound clarity and allow deaf employees to communicate more efficiently with minimal audio delay.

Besides wearable hearing solutions, leveraging assistive technologies in the workplace can also involve using software with alternative communication features. For instance, you can adopt Microsoft Teams as the main video conferencing platform for team and client meetings. The software supports automatic translation and transcription to not only address language proficiency barriers but also enable deaf employees to complement lip-reading with real-time closed captioning.

Conduct disability awareness training

Lastly, recruiters and the rest of the HR professionals must be prepared to conduct workshops that raise other employees’ awareness of hearing disabilities. By teaching employees practical strategies for communicating with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, newly hired employees can be better supported and met with empathy in the workplace. Removing hearing barriers through training may also involve getting the workforce acquainted with the use of assistive technologies to normalize accessibility and inclusion efforts.

As you take the initiative to transform your talent acquisition strategy to be more inclusive, consider checking out GoHire recruiting automation solutions. These solutions can help candidates apply for and inquire about open roles with greater accessibility and convenience.