Spring 2005

Ken Sting

After twenty-five years at the Seattle Lighthouse, President’s Award Winner Ken Sting will retire this summer. Ken, who is Deaf-Blind due to Usher syndrome, traveled from his home-state of Michigan in 1978 to attend the very first annual Deaf-Blind retreat. Soon after the retreat, Ken moved to Seattle and started work in the Seattle Lighthouse machine shop making parts for Boeing airplanes.

At that time the Lighthouse had not established a strong interpreting staff or a machinist training program. He devised ways to communicate with his co-workers though they did not speak his native language, American Sign Language. Ken taught himself how to set up the punch presses by observing other workers.

“Ken grew up before the Americans with Disabilities Act -- before a lot of those kinds of possibilities opened up for Deaf and Deaf-Blind people and he’s still been so successful,” says Paula Hoffman, director of rehabilitation and government affairs. “He’s learned so much. He knows so much. It’s Ken’s spirit, his abilities. He’s has a work ethic and he also has a warm, affectionate side to him.”

Ken has been an active part of the Deaf-Blind community and the Seattle Lighthouse Deaf-Blind program for thirty years. He has been a regular part of Deaf-Blind community classes from the beginning as well as an active part of Washington State Deaf-Blind Citizens and the Deaf-Blind Service Center. “He’s one of the people who keeps the [Deaf-Blind] program honest. He’s one of the real leaders and one of the people who really influenced the program,” Paula continues.

Paula remembers one of her first experiences interpreting was with Ken. “I went to observe a Deaf-Blind meeting and they were so desperate for interpreting that I just got recruited to help. I couldn’t interpret at all, I could barely sign. I got matched with Ken Sting and he was so gracious to me and kind. He didn’t take it upon himself to point out how bad I was. He just encouraged me...He’s a wonderful, wonderful man.”

Ken is known throughout the Lighthouse for his inventiveness, he has created a slew of devices to use in the machine shop, as well as his willingness to try new things. Ken is among the first Deaf-Blind people in Seattle to use a guide dog. He has also enrolled in computer classes in the Technology Training Center, learning to use email, the Internet, and assistive technology.

Ken’s outstanding personal and professional qualities were recognized at the Employee Awards Ceremony by President George Jacobson. “I’m very happy,” says Ken of winning the award. “I was very surprised. I was listening through my interpreter [at the ceremony] and I thought ‘that’s me!’ I had a big smile on my face.”

Here are a few of the comments Ken’s co-workers submitted in his nomination for the award:

He has been an outstanding employee and a great support to those of us responsible for delivering services in the Deaf-Blind program. He is a dear man with a talent for all things mechanical. He has been a vital part of the Lighthouse shop. What will we ever do without him? He is dearly loved and appreciated.

To me, he represents everything the Lighthouse stands for... over the years Ken has invented many tool fixtures and gadgets to make his and everyone else’s job easier.  He has made devices so that he could independently fill out his own job card.  He made a jig in order to cut material in a straight line as well as measuring devices for the blind.  Ken is also concerned with safety and with the help of the maintenance department devised tactile cues to let him know when it is not safe to operate the presses.

Ken uses the machine shop like one would use the tools in their garage.  There isn’t a machine he can’t operate and few that he can’t set up himself...Ken is a pleasant, cheerful and humorous person to work with.  I will miss his creativity and innovations at work and it will be a great loss to the Lighthouse when he retires this summer.

Interpreter’s note: Ken’s comments were translated from American Sign Language into English by an interpreter proficient in tactile signing.

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