Who is running the show?

Oct 17, 2017

Hi there,

My friend had two comments regarding my most recent blogs. The first comment I analyzed in “The Deaf-Blind person”, now I will examine the other.

Who is running the show? In other words, who is running the Deaf-Blind or deafblind agencies?

This is one reason why I moved to BC, a minor reason really. In Ontario, almost all agencies that serve either Deaf-Blind or deafblind are run by those who are NOT Deaf-Blind.

By “Run by”, I mean all staff, managers, support workers are hearing sighted. Even the GBC program of Intervenor Studies has hearing sighted decision makers, professors and teachers. Yes, there are three Deaf-Blind instructors, one who teaches a full class solo.

Oh sure, agencies do hire Deaf-Blind, but their jobs are mostly cleaning and instructing. No real decision making power.

I also notice that most boards that run agencies are overwhelmingly non Deaf-Blind!

But, not to discredit all these agencies avid support and great work ethic, and to avoid filling my inbox with hate mail. These agencies have been working with Deaf-Blind for 25 or more years and have a whole lot of experience and knowledge! They do know what they are doing! I just wish that they would hire more Deaf-Blind managers and decision makers!

I am happy to be back in Vancouver, where all committees for Deaf-Blind are run by Deaf-Blind. We are responsible for our future, we plan, work, sweat to make the live’s of Deaf-Blind better.