Phil's story

People in this video
Phil, a client of RNID’s Employment Training and Skills Service
Dave, Phil’s colleague

Phil: [signed] Before I started here I had a problem. I couldn’t find a job. I went to RNID. They made phone calls for me and helped me with my CV. They changed my CV and it is much better. Then they helped arrange my interview, with an interpreter. Three of us, me, Dave my colleague here, and the interpreter. It was no problem. Without them [RNID] I would have had a problem. With them, no problem. They’re brilliant, RNID are really good. Before I was depressed. Now I’m working here I’m happy. I’m happy working here.

Dave: Scott Don came and saw me and he said we have got a lad coming tomorrow and we are going to try him out. And I thought, oh not another one, and he said, no, no, this is different, he is deaf and I thought [look of shock]. I was taken aback. I was thinking, he's deaf, we can't have him working here. Everybody got word of it and said, oh what are they playing at? He'll get killed, he'll get burned. And he turned up and we were cutting the bars on the first day. And invariably when you have got these young lads on their first day they get it wrong.

They can't count, they can’t do it, and Phil went yeah, yeah, and I thought, well that’s easy enough, and so I thought we’ll step back and let him make a mess and then I can show him. And he didn’t. And straight away I thought, hey, this is something different.

He can cut steel, he can measure. It might just be a one off but let’s see how it goes, and then as the days go by you realise that everything you were telling him was going in and staying in, and we have never looked back.

We decided, well we will send him on a course. It was seven day, intensive, 8am-5pm, and you go right through mig welding. The funny thing about it was they give you a basic English and maths test to see whether you need help and one or two of the lads were saying that he [Phil] got the highest score out of all of them. Get in there!

What people tend to do is they tend to listen with their ears. I know it sounds daft that, but when you are talking to someone who is partially hearing or totally deaf you don’t listen really to what they are saying, you look at their actions. We turned it into a bit of a game with the other lads learning to sign.

With the basic alphabet, I found that if we were struggling over a word that we didn’t understand, I could spell it to him, and he brought photographs [of different signs] in for everybody and handed them out. And those that were interested in doing it, there were about three of us at first, and then he got me a book of sign language and so we could say good morning, good night and all that. It’s only basic at first but I just found it so interesting and we communicate better. And we have signs for everybody in here, don’t we? [Smiling] Like Steve with long hair. He [Phil] hasn't told me what he calls me. [Laughing] It must be really bad! [Laughing]

Phil: [signed] I'm not sure. I'm trying to think.

Dave:There is no end really to what he can do. Every time we look at a job we think, could Phil do that? Yes he could, and he has proved that there is no difference in whatever he does, you know what I mean? We've only had to change certain things; people should change their way of thinking.

We should turn round and say, we are going on site and we have a deaf person with us. He is perfectly able to do everything else; the only thing is any instructions you need to do, you need to visually look at him. And that’s the only difference there should be. It’s not like we are bending over backwards to accommodate Philip. It’s like Philip's influence on the company has brought us all together to think, is that safe? Is that safe? Is that safe? Is this process that we're doing, is it right?

Someone said to me a couple of months back, when I had a go at Phil, saying it's not good enough, aren't you being a bit harsh? And I said no, I’m not being harsh. He's working, he’s earning a wage and he's here to do a job. So if he does it wrong, I can't just say, oh it's Phil, let it go. We need to tell him and then he’ll do it right. And he goes right, fair enough, and he takes it on board and we move on.

Phil: [signed, laughing] I stay cool.

Dave: He is a total asset to the company. He is the best thing that ever happened to the company actually. We are now doing twice as much work with three of us than we did with seven and he’s integrated in to the company totally. He’s just one of the boys. But when he is off we miss him, most importantly. He’s been on holiday this week and the first thing I said to him was welcome back, because we have fallen behind. Because we are such a tight unit that although we can carry on working, you do realise when Philip is not there to help you.

People should be more aware. That’s what it’s all down to, being more aware and realising that they’re deaf but not daft. That's the main word that they should look at. They're deaf but not daft. Or deaf and not dumb. That's what people say, he’s deaf and dumb, he can’t do that. We’ve overcome those obstacles and companies need to realise that just because someone’s deaf, doesn’t mean they can’t do anything. They are only restricted by their own imagination really.