Bev Guthrie is an ITPA on the Services Team under FIA Systems Development, part of DIT’s agency services.  Unlike many of her counterparts, Bev faces some unique challenges.  She is completely deaf, but she speaks well.

Bev came to DIT in January of this year, after 8 years with EDS and 8.5 years with the Friend of the Court in Genesee County.  She is very happy with working for the State and especially enjoys the people.  “They look at me as a person, not a handicapped person,” Bev says.  As a programmer analyst, her duties generally include coding, analyzing, testing, documentation - right now for Adoption Subsidy and Family First. She works in both maintenance and development.

Bev’s educational background has prepared her for a job in Information Technology.  She grew up in Delaware, where there was no school for the deaf, so she began a in a special program for deaf students.  When Delaware did begin a school for the deaf, she was among its first students.  However, the curriculum was too easy so she switched to a private school.  In 6^th grade, Bev transferred to public school, which proved to be very challenging.  There were no interpreters so she had to rely on friends for class notes and the like.  She graduated with honors and then began her studies at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, NY.  She received an Associate’s Degree in Data Processing there, as valedictorian.  She then received a B.S. in Computer Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she was able to work with interpreters, notetakers and tutors.  It is the first and largest technical college for the deaf.  NTID is located right on the RIT campus. She graduated with honors and came to Michigan for the available jobs.

Being deaf, Bev experiences a few more challenges in her job than other employees do.  She said the biggest one is communication.  Bev can talk and is a very good lip reader, but it is difficult for her to read lips at meetings, because so many different people are speaking.  She also relies on the TTY service for telephone calls.  TTY is a relay service that translates voice to text and vice-versa.  By calling 711, anyone can dial into the TTY system so that they could talk to Bev or other deaf people.

In order to improve communication, Bev has been teaching her peers sign language and trying to educate them about deaf culture.  She said this has helped a lot, because it takes away some of the guesswork in lip reading.  For instance the words “match” and “batch” look very similar when spoken, but have completely different signs.  As her co-workers learn more and more signs, communication becomes easier.  Above all though, Bev says the key to overcoming communication gaps is to maintain a positive attitude.  She has taught herself to be positive, and to be patient.  She sometimes has to ask people to repeat themselves, and expects others to ask her to repeat what she is saying, as well.  Instead of getting frustrated, Bev has learned to keep a calm attitude and tone of voice.  Overcoming differences requires her to have a different outlook than many other state employees.  “We’re no different,” she says, “we just can’t hear.”

Bev enjoys her job with DIT.  She said her favorite part is just working and learning new things.  She also enjoys teaching her peers about deaf culture.  Her office is full of useful information about deaf culture and education.  She likes being able to apply her education and experience to new challenges at DIT.  Her least favorite part of the job, however, is when the flow of work is slow.  “I don’t like to sit and do nothing,” she says.  Bev encounters challenges on her job, but is able to overcome them.  She summed it up well, “all that matters is attitude.”

For more information on Deaf Culture, check out:

           http://www.deafzone.com

            http://www.nad.org

FIA’s Division on Deaf and Hard of Hearing also has a lot of information in its library.  Check out their site at http://www.michigan.gov/fia/1,1607,7-124--23760--,00.html. 

“Our Deafness” by Kimberly Richards