Meet Paul Crawford - International Day of People with a Disability

Everyone has the right to be an active member of their community and to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

But simple things such as accessibility, negative attitudes and lack of support provide barriers to many people with disabilities in finding work.

Around 40 percent of Australians aged 18 years or over report to have some sort of long-term health condition or disability.

The United Nations International Day of People with a Disability is held on 3 December each year. It’s an opportunity to increase awareness, acceptance and understanding of people with a disability and celebrate their achievements and contributions.

This year’s theme is: Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world.

At HSS, we aim to provide an inclusive work environment, one where people can bring their true, authentic selves to work.

Paul Crawford, HSS Senior ICT agent, was born profoundly deaf. As a result of this he has never heard speech and learnt to speak in the way most of us have. His deafness was picked up by a clinic sister at six months, and after having the diagnosis confirmed by an audiologist, he was fitted with a body aid – the auditory aid which was offered to children back then.

“When I got my first hearing aids, Mum had to tape them to my ears as I was known to bury them in the sandpit or throw them in a bucket of water or in the toilet,” he said.

“This resulted in them having to be replaced, and as we were living in Port Hedland, it meant I could be up to ten days without them. While they were useful, they not only amplify the spoken word but also the background noises which made it difficult to differentiate.”

As a child, Paul went to Aquinas College and was supported part-time by a teacher from the WA School for Deaf Children. An avid sports player, Paul participated in basketball and football and was in the Wembley state baseball league team for a number of years.

He found sport to be a great ‘leveller’ where he was readily accepted by his teammates because of his skills and enjoyed the feeling of camaraderie. 

“The players were great, they all supported me, and I felt included,” said Paul.

But learning at school was still a challenge.

“I enjoyed school overall, but at high school I had to learn to adjust to different teachers' speech, lip patterns and accents” he said.

Paul received his first Cochlear implant at the age of 11 – just the 13^th child in WA to undergo the surgery.

“Because this procedure was still fairly new, the specialists only implanted one, and it was turned on about six weeks after the surgery.

“It was a new sound for me, and although I could hear a bit more than the original hearing aids, it was a different, ‘tinny’ electronic sound and I had to learn my words and sounds all over again.”

A cochlear implant works differently to a hearing aid. A hearing aid magnifies the sound so that the damaged parts of an ear can hear the noise, whereas the implant bypasses the damaged part of the ear and directly stimulates the auditory nerve.

Paul’s second cochlear implant was implanted as an adult.

“Although the implants help me, I still need to rely on lip reading. Due to the degree of my deafness, I don’t hear high pitched sounds so I don’t always hear the complete word, or even miss a word altogether. This in turn effects my speech, the understanding of language as well as use of grammar.

Background noise or situations when people are all talking at once is also difficult,” he added.

Paul joined HSS in 2020 as an ICT Service Agent when COVID started. “Being deaf made it difficult to deal with people on the phone, so I had to adapt my communication methods.

“Sometimes people speak too quickly or too slowly, so working with Microsoft Teams or emails are much better. Meetings can also be hard when people are talking over the top of each other.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional challenges for Paul.

“When everyone was wearing masks, I couldn’t lip read so it was hard to be able to understand what people were saying. Technology has certainly made things a little easier work wise and socially, such as being able to email or text, but it doesn’t replace being able to pick up the phone and hear someone’s voice,” he added.

Paul recently applied for a role in IT and his interview was adjusted to assist him with his application.

Paul took his father, Don, as a support person into his interview to assist with interpreting for Paul and the panel and Paul had time to review the set of interview questions and type answers before he came in.

“It’s important for people to remember that because Paul has never heard a spoken word that his language and grammar are affected,” said Don.

“People with a disability need to be operating off a level playing field when they are interviewed. If you analyse Paul’s disability, not only does he have a hearing impairment, but because he’s never heard a spoken word, he has never learned to pronounce words properly and therefore his speech is impaired.”

“And when the questions are asked in a complex manner, or perhaps in a way where the questions are double or triple barrelled, then it’s difficult for him to comprehend what the questions mean.”

“Paul was given the opportunity to take a little longer to answer the questions and was able to write his answers rather than answer them verbally, which helped,” added Don.

“It’s good to see organisations like HSS endeavouring to be inclusive and having policies for

people with disability. Everyday processes need to have flexibility and understanding of individual needs and requirements,” said Paul.

“I enjoy working with HSS and have received good support and understanding from a number of my colleagues which I really appreciate,” he added.

Whilst unfortunately on this occasion Paul was not successful at interview, we will continue to support Paul in his career development and further opportunities as they arise.

Outside of work, Paul is happily married with three little boys that keep him busy.