Karen Sailors has known adversity. After being widowed in her early '30s, she raised two children on her own. In 2007, she was laid off from her job. And when she started thinking about the next step in her life, it was clear she needed to get back to the classroom to build on the training she'd gotten years ago at a technical college. Facing these challenges was tough enough, but Sailors managed them while overcoming a personal disability: She has been deaf since birth.
Having struggled with lip reading all her life, Sailors managed best with an interpreter. But finding a program that could accommodate her special need was daunting. It wasn't until she contacted admissions officers at Medtech in Marietta that she immediately felt she'd found a match. The technical college specializes in training students for jobs in IT and health care.
"I'm very interested in biology and the human body and wanted to be in that area, so I was very curious about their program," said Sailors, who speaks through an interpreter. "When the school said they would provide an interpreter for me, I was really happy and excited. I was so thrilled they wanted to work with me."
Last fall, Sailors, now 47, started taking courses and was the only deaf person in her three classes.
"They told me I was the first deaf person to start there," she said. "That was the hearing world; I'm in the deaf world, and it was hard. But my teachers encouraged me not to give up."
It took Sailors nine months to complete her certification as a medical office information professional - someone who can file insurance claims and handle the massive paperwork generated by a doctor's office or hospital department.
"Deaf people can do it with a video relay service; that's how we're communicating now," Sailors said. "Technology has made it really simple. The caller and the interpreter can see each other on a web cam, and the interpreter has a head piece to hear the hearing person. So now deaf people can make phone calls while signing in our first language. It's very cool."
Being deaf does give her one particular advantage as an employee, Sailors said.
"I can get my work done very fast because I don't have the distraction of hearing other things going on," she said with a laugh. "At other jobs, people have told me I can slow down, but I don't have that distraction of noises so I can work faster."
Sailors is currently looking for a new job and is upbeat about her prospects.
"I'm willing to try any job anywhere, but my goal is to work with the deaf culture, maybe be at a deaf school," she said. "What I really want is to encourage other deaf people and to help the hearing community learn that deaf people can do anything hearing people can. There is a perception that people who are deaf are slow or incapable, and that perception needs to change."
Who has inspired you? Every other Wednesday, H.M. Cauley brings you positive stories from our community. To suggest a story idea, e-mail hm_cauley@yahoo.com.
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