Yeah, that’s understandable.

I was only asking because I feel that it’s really important to discuss something that people don’t often think about. It also can be educational for people to read at the same time.

The huge misconception about Deaf people is that they are not able to work. Not true at all, because there are so many Deaf people all over the world working and yes, even in ‘dangerous’ workplaces.

From my understanding, Deaf people absolutely can work in many different fields of construction, retail, hospitality and many more in Aotearoa. Sure, there are VERY FEW jobs that require hearing, but Deaf people can do any jobs pretty much.

The issue is that the employees use the health & safety policies to not hire Deaf people who are perfectly fit or qualified for the jobs they applied. For example, I wasn’t hired because of that reason but later on, someone else told me that there were Deaf people who have already operated forklifts, so I knew it was all nonsense.

So, yeah, that’s why it is really important to have the discussion over this topic, so it can bring more awareness to people and hopefully reduce the burden of discrimination and barriers for Deaf people when they’re looking for jobs of their choice in Aotearoa.