Imagine that you are a highly qualified individual seeking a promotion that your peers, supervisors, and supporters agree you deserve. The only obstacle blocking you is the difficult task of asking your boss to pay for 18-24 months of support services so you can attend training seminars to achieve a certification that immediately promotes you ahead of your peers. Then imagine your boss’ expression of shock when he/she factors in the cost of interpreters!
Deaf and hard of hearing Federal employees have found themselves in this situation. They must ask their boss for permission to participate in the several, required six-week training sessions called the Senior Executive Series (SES), which promotes Federal government workers. Members of the SES serve in the key positions just below the top Presidential appointees and function as a major link between these appointees and the rest of the Federal work force. According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) SES website, “the SES was designed to be a corps of executives selected for their leadership qualifications, not their technical expertise.”
It does not end with the SES training sessions, the looming prospect of managing hearing workers after you are appointed as a SES employee— the cost of interpreters and all the assistive technology required for the deaf and hard of hearing Federal employee to perform essential tasks expected of a SES qualified Federal employee creeps into the mind of the Federal government’s bottom line.
Well, isn’t the Federal government required to provide accommodations by law, you ask? Ok, let’s cover some historical Federal government hiring practices first— then we will discuss the SES situation.
Federal hiring trends
In fiscal year 2002, the Federal government employed a total of 1,460,793 white-collar employees, a drastic 30% reduction from the two million-plus employees on the Federal payroll in the mid-l990s. Despite Federal downsizing, in fiscal year 2000 President Clinton issued Executive Order 13163 to Federal agencies, an aggressive plan to hire 100,000 employees with disabilities over the next five years.
The Federal government categorizes a person with disability in two areas: those with reportable disabilities (back problems, person with HIV, learning disability, etc.) or those with targeted disabilities (deaf, blind, mental retardation, etc.). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (www.eeoc.gov [2]) annual report for 1999 on targeted disabilities reported that deaf and hard of hearing employees were hired with a next to last average in the General Schedule salary (the Federal government pay scale) just ahead of people with mental retardation.
Numbers don’t lie
There are nine categories in the OPM definition of targeted disability— Deaf, Blind, Missing Extremities, Partial Paralysis, Complete Paralysis, Convulsive Disorders, Mental Retardation, Mental Illness, and Distortion of Limbs and Spine. Deaf and hard of hearing people have since climbed up some in the EEOC report of averaged salary in the last few years. However, there are clearly clusters of deaf employees in the GS 4-7 and GS 11-12 (from the GS 1-15 on the Federal General Schedule pay scale). The Federal employment picture for deaf and hard of hearing Federal employees turns grim for those in higher grades. The chart below shows the numbers of reportable, targeted, and deaf employees in the Federal White Collar employment.
|
GS Pay Levels |
Total Federal employees; White Collar |
Reportable Disabilities (% of total employees) |
Targeted Disabilities (% of total employees) |
Deaf (% of total employees) |
|
All |
1,460,793 |
99,277 (3.15%) |
15,814 (1.08%) |
2,161 (0.15%) |
|
Senior Executive Series |
13,633 |
617 (4.05%) |
62 (0.41%) |
1 (.007%) |
|
GS-15 |
55,083 |
2,468 (4.48%) |
264 (0.48%) |
6 (0.01%) |
|
GS-14 |
91,299 |
4,233 (4.63%) |
480 (0.53%) |
17 (0.02%) |
|
GS-13 |
192,974 |
9,777 (5.07%) |
1,275 (0.66%) |
80 (0.04%) |
Only one deaf person is known to hold a Senior Executive Series (SES) position, out of 13,633 SES positions in the Federal government. Only six deaf Federal employees are known to hold a GS-15 position out of 55,083 in GS-15, 17 deaf people are known to hold GS-14 positions out of 91,299, 80 deaf people are known to hold GS-13 positions out of 192,974! These figures are for FY 2002, and do not include blue-collar positions.
About the DHHIG
Eric Spanbauer, of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Government (DHHIG), a consortium of government employees who are deaf or hard of hearing— states that the major reason for this alarming lack of deaf and hard of hearing Federal employees in decision-making positions (GS-13 and above) is that deaf people have glass walls below the proverbial glass ceiling in which persons who are minorities or have a disability face discrimination in the workplace. Glass walls are communication barriers deaf and hard of hearing people face in the workplace because they do not generally speak well.
DHHIG (www.dhhig.org [3]) is a five-year-old non-profit deaf employee-based advocacy organization dedicated to breaking down glass walls in the Federal workplace. Currently, DHHIG is involved in a special OPM work-study committee to devise ways to include people with disabilities, including deaf and hard of hearing in the SES training modules. SES training in many Federal agencies takes up to two years, often with secluded training sessions lasting six weeks or more in duration. One can only imagine the cost of an interpreter for a two-year SES training— a concern that becomes a glass wall. Current committee recommendations include setting up a centralized OPM, reasonable accommodations fund to remove any possible, and unintentional “glass wall” attitudes for Federal agencies to send deaf and hard of hearing employees to SES training opportunities.
Shattering the glass walls
Following the spirit of the successful Gallaudet University Deaf President Now uprising to place a deaf President at the helm of the university— DHHIG also aims to see more deaf and hard of hearing people in Federal decision-making processes. We all know too well— that if we put one of our own up there in one of the SES positions, then more qualified deaf and hard of hearing people will be hired to top-tier positions.
Billy Bowman of the Social Security Administration challenges the average salary problem of Federal deaf and hard of hearing employees (next to mentally challenged) with some real questions, “What are deaf and hard of hearing Federal employees doing now? Do they move up the rank according to their abilities?” An informal study shows that as high as 90 percent of this group do not go any further once they complete or reach their career ladder. He believes collaboration between the deaf and hard of hearing community, including professional organizations and the Federal sector, is necessary to promote equity and opportunities.
This is where DHHIG comes in. Instead of one deaf or hard of hearing person speaking, DHHIG can speak for thousands of deaf and hard of hearing employees with similar concerns. Shelly Franks, Executive Director of DHHIG (pictured right), adds:
“The Federal government is hiring deaf and hard of hearing employees, and that’s good news. The bad news is the Federal government is not doing much to look at the bigger picture— which is to ensure that deaf people are hired at all levels— especially the GS-13 and up of the Federal General Schedule pay scale. It takes two to shatter the proverbial glass walls— DHHIG and the Federal government.”
DHHIG will continue to look out for deaf and hard of hearing Federal employees. Every year, the DHHIG hosts either a three-day national training conference or a one-day employment seminar to address current employment issues. Also, the OPM is now warming to the idea of opening up SES opportunities for people with disabilities, and the DHHIG plans to advocate for deaf and hard of hearing to be included in the next crop of new SES inductees.
Of course, I am ready, with a big hammer in my hands, to help DHHIG shatter these glass walls!
Links:
[1] http://www.nad.org/users/admin
[2] http://www.eeoc.gov
[3] http://www.dhhig.org
[4] http://deaf.disqus.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nad.org%2Fnews%2F2004%2F11%2Fbreaking-federal-glass-walls