Making deaf people productive entrepreneurs
Deaf or hearing-impaired students who graduated from the
For instance, a lot of the previous graduates are now doing the encoding and book keeping of call centers like Accenture, which do not require sound or verbal communications, according to Dean Therese Christine Benitez-de la Torre.
The school is also forging tie-ups with other companies and NGOs to utilize their graduates in their non-verbal operations. Two new required elective programs for deaf students are: multi media and entrepreneurship, which are intended to widen the opportunities for the hearing-impaired when they finish college.
“But I do not appeal to the companies like I was begging them to employ my graduates because that is the least the hearing-impaired would like to happen. Neither do I invoke the provision of the physical disability law. I just present the expertise and talents of my graduates and it is up to them to try them out,” de la Torre said.
Students of the school designed the website of the League of Corporate Foundations and other big companies, which were all impressed at the creativity (aesthetic and content) of the site. Most of the companies and NGOs that tied up with the school ended being impressed with the graduates and some even increased their hiring allotments to the school’s pool of graduates, she added.
One student, Diana Banas, who trained in two five-star hotels and learned to bake cakes and chocolates after graduating in 2004, is now selling this Christmas her hand-made chocolates, which can be ordered through the Internet at [email protected].
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Figaro Coffee Company, for one, is now working out possible tie-ups with the school to hire graduates and those still enrolled to work in the different areas of the company, particularly in improving the website, back office operations and training them on managing a coffee shop.
“Eventually, we would like to see the graduates supervising our different outlets after they have undergone training in the different fields of operations,” said Reena Francisco, Figaro Coffee Company COO who met with the school recently.
St. Benilde is among the first few colleges that introduced the tertiary program for the deaf—most of whom graduated in the government-owned Philippine Institute for the Deaf and ended jobless because they lacked skills that made them unemployable and their deficiency worsened their chance of joining the mainstream programs.
When Brother Andrew was alive he used to say “can we give options to the deaf by creating opportunities for them. And when we researched and discovered that 300 years ago, Brother Benilde taught catechism to the deaf, she said.
De la Torre said the hearing impaired people are least appreciated among disabled persons and their concerns least addressed because they physically look like every hearing person.
Current laws or programs increasing the access of disabled to mainstream activity never addressed the limitations of the hearing-impaired because it can not be seen. Yet, it is the deaf person is inflicted with the most insults and suffering because people do not know if they are just acting deaf or are really one.
Even the language, communication skills and tools required to address a hearing-impaired person’s needs are radically transformed to suit the absence of sound.
The deaf program started in 1991 as a vocational course in book keeping and accounting. In 1996, the program evolved becoming a full-fledged SDEAS. It started offering bachelor’s degree in 2000 to produce leader-advocates in particular fields of specialization.
Though it had since opened to the more privileged deaf students, the school continues to be an educational institution where underprivileged deaf students gain a head start in fulfilling their potentials as productive members of society.
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