Introduction

Hello!

I'm a 30 year old deaf guy who is in the process of becoming a volunteer firefighter. I have a wonderful wife and two young sons. I'm profoundly deaf and was born with a significant hearing loss. I grew up in the oral tradition (meaning I spoke and read lips only). My hometown is in northern New Jersey and I currently live in the Philadelphia region working as a project manager/programmer for a large corporation.

When I was younger, I was always under the impression that deaf people couldn't be firefighters (FF's) because the risks that hearing FF's already face are greatly increased. At least that was my impression. I never really had the guts to find out more.

While I was at Gallaudet University, there was a short-lived attempt to create an on-campus first-responders team of all deaf students but that fell short due to bureaucracy. After that, my "dream" fell to the wayside.

When my older son got a new pair of sandals with little fire trucks on them, he started asking what they were. I took him to the local station a few times and got to meet many of the volunteers there.

Figuring the worst that could happen is "they say no..", I e-mailed the membership director and asked him if I could join. To my surprise, they said not only could I join them, but they would support me in whatever role I chose.

This past week, my application to join was accepted and I observed my first drill night the other day. It was a community drill night (meaning they went to a local park and put on demonstrations for residents in the area) so I was content to just watch.

During the drill, many of the firefighters came up to me and said, "Hey, you're XXXX, aren't you?". This always makes me feel great because people tend to identify others by characteristics. In other words, you're more likely to remember Bob from the sales convention a few years ago because he has a combover that would give Vidal Sasson conniption fits. I was mentally prepared for someone to say, "hey, you're that deaf guy we voted in.." but it didn't happen.

The president of the fire company came to me during the drill and we got to talking about what I'm doing. I thanked him for giving me the opportunity. He made a great point: if a fire company is to be comprised of volunteers from the community, then it has to be welcoming to ALL people. Otherwise, it becomes an ol' boys club or an exclusive fraternity of those guys that ride big red trucks.

At this point, it's summer and many people are away on vacation so progress will be slow. I anticipate things picking up during the fall.

You may notice that I'm not explicitly identifying myself or the department I am joining. This is because there are very strong feelings within the firefighting community about people with any type of physical limitations joining up. See this thread from firehouse.com which basically shows you're either for or against the idea. Fortunately, my experience has been very positive.

I've created this blog as a resource for other deaf people that may want to join the emergency services so they can learn from my mistakes (I'm sure I'll make a few), see that they're not alone and celebrate the succeses. In time, I hope to create an on-line community of deaf emergency responders to get more deaf people involved!