Interview with Paul Meyer

QUESTION 01 Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and how your disability might impact your experience, as someone who attends live in-person and virtual events?

As a deaf person, I rely on lipreading (but it is not 100% effective for us), ASL, and speech-to-text applications, interpreters to help me understand what is going on during a live in-person meeting and in virtual events. People often think I do not need any accessibility help because I can speak pretty well, but I often say that I am really deaf, and do need accommodations to help me understand and be involved in the process at hand.

If there are no interpreters or CART for an live-in person meeting, I am often left out and unable to participate. I am utterly lost. My hands are tied behind my back. But I always sit there and try to understand snips of this and that via slide show or decks that are being shown and try to piece it together to the best of my ability.

For virtual meetings, if the host does remember to turn on the closed captioning feature for whichever platform they are using for the meeting, I am able to follow and participate. But it is often not 100% accurate as auto-captions are still an issue that the deaf community is facing currently. And companies need to remember that the auto-caption feature on Teams Zoom is not a reasonable accommodation per the law if it is not providing at an almost 100% accuracy rate. So other accommodation will need to be made to ensure effective and reasonable accommodation for a deaf person.

The best thing for an in-person meeting is to ave an interpreter present, while having closed captioning / CART as a backup because of the ability to print out transcription which is useful because I cannot take notes and watch at the same time. For virtual events, I can use an interpreter, but normally use the caption feature, chat, and transcription to help me follow along.

QUESTION 02 Thinking back on some of your experiences attending in-person or virtual events, what are some of the worst things speakers, trainers, and other communication experts can do to ruin your experience as an attendee?

As a deaf person who relies on lipreading and an interpreter, the worst thing a speaker can do in-person is to constantly move around the stage nonstop (if they are standing up), and not speak loud enough for an interpreter to listen to help interpret what they are speaking about. If the room does not have sufficient lighting or the room is full of fluorescent lighting, that will make it harder to lipread / watch, because our eyes have to work extra hard to “listen”.

If they do not have a Powerpoint or do not have handouts, that makes it much harder for me to follow on what the subject is about. And if they talk extremely fast, that does hurt the ability for an interpreter to process and properly translate the message to me concisely. And if the room is dark, the lack of lighting focused on an interpreter hurts as well, because I need to be able to see moving hands to help follow along the presentation. And the lack of space for me and an interpreter can also ruin the experience. Sometimes, I do not like sitting up front right by the stage. Sometimes, I will come a bit early and find a spot for us so that we can both be comfortable and yet have the access to hear or watch the presentation. But if the in-person presentation has live captioning or CART up front, then it is awesome because I am able to follow everything at once.

For virtual meetings, I just hope that the host of the hour remembers to turn on the closed captioning, and to speak in a nice consistent pattern so that the auto-caption can follow along and create caption. Because if the speaker talks too fast, the captioning often does not work, or the words are jumbled together and typed out wrong. And having Powerpoint up is useful as well. Be sure to pin the speaker speaking, so I can also lipread at the same time. That is useful for me as a deaf person. And people need to speak one at a time, not all at the same time because the caption system is unable to pick up who says what and that can become an issue for me. And having people’s camera on (in a team meeting) is useful for me, because I can see faces and understand the tone of the meeting at hand at the same time.

QUESTION 03 Can you share some of the great things speakers, trainers, and other communication experts sometimes do that make a positive impact on your ability to fully enjoy your in-person or virtual event experiences?

For an in-person event, they can ask what I need beforehand. Or if the invitation has a section where I can fill out in the space, what I need is an interpreter, a CART, preference of seating / lighting, reserved seating, etc. And I can come and enjoy what the event has to offer in person and not worry or fret about things going wrong or missing out on important information that may apply to me.

For virtual meetings, the host can ask what I need, or include in the invite any accessible modifications that they can offer me before the session. I can note that I may need the closed captioning turned on, have an interpreter present, or ensure that the chat box is up and running (because I can type in questions or if there are tech issues, ask what is going on, or hold the meeting up if the captioning isn’t working or is delayed, etc). And to provide a transcription of the meeting afterwards if allowed.

And please remember, you cannot provide / request an interpreter ASAP a day before an event of any type. The request for an interpreter needs to be made maybe a week or two beforehand to ensure time to locate or hire interpreters. So, it is best to send out invites for an event 2-3 weeks before for accommodation needs.

QUESTION 04 If you had one piece of advice to give speakers, trainers, and other communication experts, so their content became more inclusive of people who have disabilities, what would it be?

My advice is to make it as inclusive as you can. Ensure that the Powerpoint can be easily seen / accessed easily in-person or virtually and that there are different communication modes available upon request for whichever needs a disabled person may have. To ensure ample space in a physical setting, ensure that there are CART / captioning services up front (in a in-person meeting) regardless if there was a request made or not. Provide a link after the end of the meeting for a disabled person to access so that we can go over it again in a calmer setting. Make sure technology is working a day before a virtual meeting instead of checking it the day of the meeting, which can create unnecessary havoc and stress on the host! And if you are simply not sure, just reach out to us or to the experts who can help with your accommodation needs.

QUESTION 05 Thank you for sharing some of your insights with us today. As we wrap up our conversation, is there anything that you’d like to add, such as another thought, another piece of advice, another perspective, etc.?

Again, there is a wide spectrum of deafness, so not one size fits all. Be open to communicating with us. Learn a few signs here and there. Offer to take notes if the meetings are short or long in case the transcription does not work (technology isn’t always 100% reliable). Ensure flexibility for us, because what may work for one of us may not work for another one of us. People need to realize that being deaf can easily leave one in a world of solitude, so always offer to lend a hand out here and there to help foster communication between the team / department or meeting goers. Be patient, if you are asked to repeat (a few times), so that we can understand you.

And in the working world, please take the initiative to hire more of us, to promote us in the diversity and inclusion field (there are not many of us), take the opportunity to retain us. We have a lot to offer and to teach you what diversity and disability is all about. To help educate and show companies that hiring a deaf / disabled person can be one of the best things that you have done.

You can only grow if you embrace different. Being inclusive is not a bad thing. It is time to embrace something different and unique. Otherwise, life would be so boring, right?