Hosting Deaf Students in Work Experience Placements
A work experience placement can play an important role in shaping a young person’s future. By opening your workplace to a student, you can help them build confidence, develop practical skills, explore career pathways and make informed decisions about their next steps as they transition into adult life. In return, you’ll welcome a capable, motivated student who can bring fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to your workplace.
Like all students, every deaf or hard of hearing student is an individual with their own strengths, goals, interests, communication preferences and support needs. Some may need simple workplace adjustments or additional support to ensure they can participate fully in the workplace, while others may need little or no additional support. In most cases, small practical adjustments and clear communication are all that’s needed to ensure the student can work safely and to the best of their ability. With good planning and an inclusive approach, work experience can be a positive and rewarding experience for both the student and the employer.
On this page you will find some practical tips, useful information and resources to help you host a deaf and hard of hearing students in your work place by applying a specifically deaf-aware lens.
Reasonable Adjustments for Deaf Students
Reasonable adjustments are changes to the work environment or work conditions that allow people with disability to work safely and productively, and to participate fully.
Under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010, employers are required to make reasonable adjustments for a person with disability who needs them to take part in the recruitment process or to perform the genuine and reasonable requirements of the job. This includes when someone with a disability is:
- Applying for a job.
- Offered employment.
- A current employee or volunteer.
Adjustments can vary from minor changes to work hours or the performance requirements of the job, to large changes that require specific equipment or structural change to the workplace.
There are no specific rules about what is or isn’t a reasonable adjustment because it depends on the situation. However, an adjustment is likely to be unreasonable if:
- It has a very high cost
- It will cause great disruption in the workplace.
Employers can apply to the Employment Assistance Fund to help cover the costs of adjustments.
For short-term work placements, there may be some limitations to what changes you can reasonably make. That’s why it’s important that you understand what each student’s needs and challenges are so that you can work with them to identify and implement practical solutions.
The best way to do this is to have an open discussion with the student and their teaching staff or other supports, about their specific needs. Each student will have different needs. A risk assessment specific to the student will help you and the student identify any potential risks and challenges and determine how best to mitigate or overcome them.
1 Think about specific challenges the student may have when doing each task at work. Challenges could be safety issues, concerns about social participation, communication or something else. Remember, each student’s needs are unique to them.
For example, the student may:
- Prefer video calls or SMS or need to use a video relay service for voice calls.
- Prefer to sit somewhere quiet with good lighting where they can see people approach.
- Experience listening fatigue and need regular breaks to disconnect.
- Suggest ways you can get their attention when they are facing away from someone.
- Need a Personal Safety Plan that they can build with your input.
- Need captions or interpreters to help them get all the information in group meetings or training.
- Need notes and slides before meetings or training to prepare or ask for written materials in plain English.
2 Brainstorm ways to overcome the challenges in open discussions with the student, teachers or other support persons that you can. Try to think of simple solutions as well as more formal solutions.
For example:
Challenge 1
Challenge 2
Challenge 3
Challenge 4
Challenge 1
The student may have difficulty following online meetings with lots of people talking at the same time.
In that case, you can:
- Caption meetings.
- Provide slides and notes ahead of the meeting to help the student prepare and follow.
Challenge 2
The student may have difficulty communicating with customers.
In that case, you can:
- Use a translation app could support short interactions with customers.
Challenge 3
The student may miss important information or social interactions if conversations are held around them but don’t specifically include them.
In that case, you can:
- Sit the student at a desk facing the room so they can see everyone approach.
- Colleagues can tap the student on the shoulder to get their attention and include them in conversations.
Challenge 4
The student may experience Listening Fatigue if they have to lipread for long periods of time.
In that case, you can:
- Provide frequent breaks in meetings and training.
- Invite the student to talk to the team about deaf awareness or provide formal deaf awareness training.
Start early!
Generally, planning for work experience should begin early for deaf or hard of hearing students, particularly if they require workplace adjustments to enable them to work safely and to the best of their ability.
Remember, it can be daunting to talk to an employer about being deaf or hard of hearing and a student wanting to do work experience with you has no legal obligation to tell you that they are deaf or hard of hearing. It’s against the law for an employer to discriminate against someone or treat them unfairly because of disability but you can help students talk to you about their needs and challenges by being open to having discussions that will help deaf and hard of hearing students overcome challenges and do their job safely and to their full potential.
It’s up to you how much you share. However, if you need adjustments to your work environment to do your job safely and effectively, it’s important that you can talk about your employer about your unique needs and problem-solve solutions to resolve challenges.
Be a Deaf Aware Employer
Being a Deaf Aware employer helps you promote inclusion, understanding and respect for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Deaf Awareness Training teaches you about different communication methods and offers practical tips to help you communicate clearly and effectively with deaf and hard of hearing individuals, fostering stronger relationships and mutual understanding. We strongly encourage all employers to consider Deaf Awareness Training.
Being deaf can make it difficult to navigate a society designed for hearing people. Deaf awareness can help break down barriers that impact health and wellbeing. Deaf awareness can help create a more inclusive society where everyone can participate fully. This includes providing accessible communication, education, and employment opportunities.
Deaf awareness can help people better understand Deaf culture and communication styles. It can also help people recognise the positive aspects of deafness and raise awareness of the organisations that support people who are deaf.
Deaf Children Australia provides Deaf Awareness Training tailored to your needs. Contact us on (put in a contact or link to deaf awareness training please)
Resources
Deaf Awareness Tips to Communicate is a short guide to being deaf aware that you can download and provide to your employees.
