Jobs Easier for Deaf in DC? And Deaf in a Recession

I just watched Seek Geo's latest (thankfully captioned) vlog, "Why Do You Need an Interpreter?" and it made me think of a couple of questions. First, why was such an intelligent deaf man with good English skills applying for a job in a warehouse?

Perhaps I am naive. I work in Washington, DC, an area where most of the deaf people I know are highly educated professionals with good jobs. We do have the benefit of the Federal government as one of the largest if not the largest employer of deaf people locally and regionally. Thus, it is probably easier for deaf people in metro DC to find jobs than it is elsewhere in the country. You might say that I openly admit to having the same problem that our Washington politicians have - lack of awareness of what real life is like beyond the Beltway.

I reviewed Seek Geo's profile on his website. According to his About Seek Geo page, he did attend Long Island University for two years before having to leave due to finances. That was it as far as higher education. So Seek Geo never got a bachelor's degree. This is probably putting him at a disadvantage, limiting him to warehouse type jobs when someone with his intelligence and skills would do well in a professional white collar job.

In addition, could another aspect of the problem be that hearing people beyond the beltway are less educated, less aware, and less tolerant? Something like that would probably never happen here in metro DC, which is loaded with highly educated, sometimes overpaid, hearing professionals. Deafness a safety issue for the job? I'll bet this "Cathy" he mentioned on the video does not have a college education, is young, and relatively unskilled.

My second thought was, if the United States economy slides into a recession, how is this going to impact deaf people? If past history is any indication, probably not much difference at all. I have seen deaf people have difficulty finding employment in both good economic times and bad economic times.