HANAHAN — Gregg Hill admits he was a little skeptical about taking a class to learn American Sign Language.
But the more Hill — a project manager for Goodwill Services — thought about it, the more he felt like it was a good idea.
Hill has about a dozen employees who are either hard of hearing or deaf working with him at the massive Goodwill Services Hanahan warehouse that serves the local Navy base. In the past he had used sticky notes, text messages or write out conversations on a legal pad to communicate with them.
Hill realized it wasn’t a very efficient way of communication.
“It wasn’t very personal either,” Hill said. “It was hard to connect with some of our deaf employees on a personal level the way we were communicating. I knew that needed to change.”
Justin Cribb, a hard of hearing employee at Palmetto Goodwill, communicates with a co-worker using ASL at Palmetto Goodwill on Oct. 27, 2021 in Hanahan. Lauren Petracca/Staff
Enter Palmetto Goodwill Executive Director Reginald Hughes, who noticed the same communication issues with deaf and hard of hearing employees as he visited different work sites around the Lowcountry. About 3 percent of Palmetto Goodwill employees working at federal contract sites are deaf.
“Statistics tell us that deaf and hard of hearing people have a harder time staying employed, have higher rates of depression and mental health issues because of stereotypes and stigmas that they face every day,” Hughes said.
The issue was only magnified during the pandemic.
“Our deaf employees felt even more isolated than normal because of social distancing and because a lot of companies went to working remotely,” he said.
Hughes was determined to change the narrative.
During the midst of the pandemic, Hughes and Palmetto Goodwill started a basic virtual American Sign Language course for the company’s employees in hopes of creating a better work environment for its deaf workers. The seven-week course, which started in September 2020, now has nearly 400 graduates.
“I feel like it has made a huge difference,” Hill said. “I was nervous at first because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sign very well. But after doing the course, I feel like I can connect more with our deaf workers and get to know them better on a personal level.”
‘Game Changer’
There are an estimated 10 million people who are hard of hearing in the …….