Fall 2006
Employee and Community Services: Expanding Opportunities and Support in the Deaf-Blind Program
The Seattle Lighthouse is fortunate to have the talents of four new employees in the Deaf-Blind program, each with extensive skills and experience in the Deaf-Blind community. “There’s a real team here,” says Paula Hoffman, director of employee & community services and government relations. “We’re lucky to have found such talented people with the skills to work in the Deaf-Blind program.”
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Karen Park, Deaf-Blind community class coordinator, and her guide dog Lexi
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Karen Park brings her experience working in diverse environments to her position as Deaf-Blind community class coordinator. Karen graduated with a bachelor of arts in environmental studies with a horticultural emphasis, after which she received a number of certificates and studied assistive technologies at Helen Keller National Center – New York. “I worked as a horticultural therapist at the Center for People with Disabilities in Boulder, Colorado,” Karen says. “It was a good challenge to work with ten to twelve hearing customers with various disabilities via my ASL interpreter.”
Karen also brings her abilities to planning and coordinating activities for the nationally acclaimed Lighthouse Deaf-Blind retreat. “[The retreat] is for both national and international Deaf-Blind communities,” she says. “I work with a team of Lighthouse Deaf-Blind program staff and interpreters to coordinate activities. The retreat includes activities like jet skiing, biking, kayaks, games, a dance night, field trips, and more.”
Karen, who is Deaf-Blind due to Usher’s syndrome, has extensive experience working with interpreters at different skill levels --- experience which helps her coordinate hundreds of interpreters and interpreting students for the Deaf-Blind retreat and community classes.
“Deaf-Blind community class is a presentation-like format. There are four to five topics we explore each quarter for three quarters a year in fall, winter, and spring,” Karen explains. “We have had topics on emergencies at home as well as a class on calling 911 and using interpreters. We had a person come and share their experiences about traveling in Africa. We have community announcements in class as well so people know what is happening locally.
“I talk to presenters about communication and pacing. Eventually I will take on matching up interpreters with people in the class,” she continues. “My job is fun and challenging at the same time. There are many varied language needs in the class depending on how people grew up. There are also various vision types, including people with tunnel vision and fully blind individuals.”
“We were excited to bring a new person into this role,” says Paula. “We’re eager to develop new leaders in the community.”
As the Lighthouse strives to create new employment opportunities for Deaf-Blind individuals, Employee and Community Services has increased its support for Deaf-Blind employees by adding a Deaf-Blind support and recruiter position.
“My position was created to make sure that Deaf-Blind employees have full access to information. Things happen at a rapid pace with hearing blind or sighted employees, I provide an appropriate pace so that Deaf-Blind people can fully access the information,” says Suzette Ledet, employee support specialist and recruiter.
“We have twenty-two Deaf-Blind people who are interested in working at the Lighthouse. So my role has evolved to working more with people who are being recruited,” Suzette continues. “I make sure that they have the kinds of support they need as new applicants.”
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Suzette Ledet, Deaf-Blind employee support specialist and recruiter
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Suzette, who was born Deaf due to meningitis, developed a love for working with Deaf-Blind people in her native New Orleans working as a Deaf-Blind advocate. A regular volunteer at Lighthouse Deaf-Blind retreats, Suzette accepted a job in the Deaf-Blind program after Hurricane Katrina decimated the New Orleans economy. “Seattle was my first choice. I immediately moved here,” she says.
Through her current position, Suzette enjoys empowering Deaf-Blind people to seek new opportunities. “I love helping Deaf-Blind people to advance themselves,” she says. “I don’t want to see them hitting the glass ceiling or becoming frustrated or stuck in a position for thirty years until they retire. I want to see them having equal opportunities like everybody else.”
She adds, “It’s enabling Deaf-Blind people to enhance their quality of life --- to support themselves and live as independently as possible. That’s what inspires me. That is the Lighthouse mission, to support their independence.”
As new employment and training opportunities open up, the Lighthouse is committing to meeting the growing need for skilled interpreters. “One thing we have done is pull what was formerly an interpreter position into Employee and Community Services as a more educational role,” says Paula. “There have been many changes in the interpreting community. We created the training and development coordinator position to develop interpreting staff, support interns, and strengthen training.”
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Joey Graff, training and development coordinator
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Joey Graff, who has worked extensively with the Lighthouse as a freelance interpreter accepted the position. “I’m a perpetual student. I’m particularly interested in the training and development of interpreters,” she says. “I’m interested in working with people in learning mode. That’s what drew me to the Lighthouse.”
Originally from the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, Joey moved to Seattle and began studying ASL and interpreting at Seattle Central Community College. She worked as an interpreter while completing her degree in neural science and women’s health. Joey first became involved in the Deaf-Blind community seven years ago through the Deaf-Blind retreat. She has worked in the Deaf-Blind community ever since.
“I’m looking at the interpreting community here in Seattle. There are not many interpreters qualified to work with Deaf-Blind people. It can be more physically demanding work. Interpreters need to participate in the community,” Joey says. “We’re looking to remedy the lack of interpreters with skills to work in the Deaf-Blind community. Our goal is getting and maintaining Deaf-Blind interpreters.”
In her new position, Joey will work with interpreters to set goals and develop professionally, including training interpreters on specialized skills such as interpreting in a government setting. “If we have more qualified interpreters, then we have more Deaf-Blind people who can maneuver in different situations. It’s one less barrier to employment and promotions.”
While Joey’s position focuses on training new interpreters, Jackie Matthews has been concentrating on improving interpreter coordination in her role as interpreting services supervisor.
“My role as supervisor is both in making our immediate office move smoothly and interacting with other departments to see how interpreting needs are being met and making that smooth and effective,” says Jackie. “From the time I graduated from my interpreting training program in 1987, I’ve always wanted to work at the Lighthouse. I love the people here. It was never the right time before, but this time it worked. It was perfect timing.”
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Jackie Matthews, interpreting services supervisor
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Jackie brings over twenty years interpreting experience with her. She spent ten years interpreting at Seattle Central Community College and then ten more years as interpreting coordinator at the University of Washington. “Jackie is just a jewel,” says Paula. “She has such a great relationship with and reputation in the interpreting world. She’s been on boards in the community and participated in Deaf-Blind community class too. She gives a whole lot of herself to people.”
One improvement Jackie has achieved in her role in changing the scheduling system to an electronic system. “In an electronic format we can gather statistics and reports,” she says.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” adds Paula. “If we improve the interpreting scheduling, we can decrease time spent on scheduling and put more of that time towards interpreting.”
Jackie especially enjoys working with different communication styles here. “Something that’s always drawn me to the Lighthouse is the wide variety of language and different signing styles,” she says. “I’ve been around the Lighthouse for twenty years, now I am seeing how the different departments work together. How we bridge the gap between different departments so that training can happen, communication can happen. I’m learning all the parts and the players. How we might work with one department is very different than how we might work with another. People are supportive as I’m learning. One of the really fun parts is meeting everyone and finding out what they do.”
*interpretation note: Karen and Suzette’s comments were translated from American Sign Language to English by Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf-certified interpreters.
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