Education and jobs for the deaf | Ruma Roka

Ruma Roka is the Founder of the Noida Deaf Society, which uses specialized vocational programs to help the deaf achieve gainful employment and more fully integrate into their communities. She shares the powerful story of how this came to be, out of her strong will and hard work.
[Note: We want you to see these talks exactly as they happened! The archive footage might be a little rougher than the usual TED.com talk.]

Didn't understand anything, did you?

(Laughter)

That's 63 million deaf people in India

who go through this
year after year, day after day,

trying to make sense
of a world they cannot hear.

Huge lack of awareness and social stigma

of having a child
that is differently-abled.

Parents run from pillar to post

trying to understand
how to bring up their child.

And they are told,
"Even though your child can't hear,

there is nothing wrong with his voice box.

There's nothing wrong
with his vocal chords

and he can be eventually
taught how to speak."

There starts the journey
of years being spent trying to teach

this little child how to articulate words
that he cannot hear.

Even within the family,
this little child wants

to communicate with his parents.

He wants to be part
of the conversations in the family.

But he can't. And he doesn't understand
why nobody is listening to him.

So he feels isolated and misses out

on a crucial skill that is required
when we grow up.

He goes to school thinking, "Okay,
hopefully things will be different."

And he finds the teachers
opening their mouths and closing

and writing these strange things
on the board.

Without understanding,
because he can't hear,

he copies it all down,
regurgitates it at the exam time,

and by rote and a few grace marks,
he finishes school, class ten.

What are his chances of employment?

Here is this child who really doesn't have
any real education.

Visual words, vocabulary
of thirty to forty words.

He's emotionally insecure, he's probably
angry with the whole world also,

which has, he feels has
systematically disabled him.

Where does he work?
Menial labor, unskilled jobs,

often in very abusive conditions.

That's where my "birth" journey starts
in 2004. I don't have, as Kelly said,

I don't have any family who are deaf.

Just a strange pull and,
no rational thought.

I jumped into this world
and learned sign language.

At that time, it was a challenge.
Nobody wanted... Nobody seemed to know...

"What is it that you want to learn, Ruma?
Is that a language?"

Anyway, learning sign language
opened up my life to this community

which is outwardly silent,
but is brimming

with the passion and curiosity
as visual learners.

And I heard their stories
of what they wanted to do.

And a year later, in 2005,
with meager savings of about $5,000

of a matured insurance policy,
I started this center,

in a small two-bedroom flat
with just six students

and me teaching them English
in sign language.

The challenges, the need of the hour
at that point was,

how do I get these kids who just
high school pass

into real jobs into the companies?

Jobs of dignity, jobs that can prove
that deaf are not dumb?

So, the challenges were huge.
The deaf were years sitting like this

and years of ennui and darkness.

They needed to believe in themselves.
The parents needed to be convinced

that this child is not deaf and dumb.

And he's capable of standing
on his own two feet.

But most importantly,

would the employer employ
somebody who couldn't speak,

couldn't hear, and very much
couldn't read or write either?

I sat together with some of my friends
from the industry,

and I shared with them my story
about what it meant to be deaf.

And I understood there were
clear areas in companies

where deaf could work, deaf people
could work as a great value add.

And with meager resources,
we created the first ever

vocational training curriculum for
deaf people in the country.

Finding trainers was a problem.
So I trained my deaf kids,

my students, to become
the teachers for the Deaf.

And it's a job they took on
with great responsibility and pride.

Still, the employer was skeptic.
Education, qualification, 10th pass.

"No, no, no, Ruma,
we cannot employ him."

That was a big problem.

"And even if we did employ him,

how are we going to communicate
with him? He can't read, write.

Can't hear/speak."

I just told them, "Please can we
take it just one step at a time?

You know, can we focus
on what he can do?

He's a great visual person.
He can work. And...

and if it works wonderful, if it doesn't,
we will at least know."

Here I would like to share
a story about Vishu Kapoor.

He came to us in 2009
with no language at all.

He didn't even know sign language.

All he saw, processed in his brain
was through his eyes.

His mother was in despair and
she says,

"Ruma, can I please keep him
in your center for two hours?

It's really difficult for me
to manage him,

you know manage with him
24 hours a day."

So I said, "Yeah, okay."
Like a crash service.

It took us a very painstaking
one a half years for us

to give Vishu a language.
As he started communicating and

he got a sense of self and
he understand that there was...

I mean he couldn't hear, but heck,
he could do so many other things.

He figured out that he liked to work
on the computers.

We encouraged him, motivated him,

and put him through our I.T. programs.
He cleared all the tests, you know,

much to my nervousness.
An opening came one day

in the back end of
a very well-known I.T. company,

and just for the exposure and
the experience, I said,

"Let Vishu also go
for this job interview."

Vishu went there and cleared
all the technical tests.

Even then I said, "Uh, I just hope
he will be able to stick on

for 6 months at least."

It's been a year and a half now.

Vishu is stil there,
and he's not only just,

'oh, this poor guy working in
this hearing environment.'

He is winning laurels as best employee
of the month, not once but two times.

(Applause)

And I want to share with you that,
today, it takes us about

a year and a half to teach
a deaf person to get ready

to get into this real world
that we know about.

In a short time of 6 years, today
500 of my wonderful young students

are working in some of
the top organizations in the industry:

in graphic design profiles,
in the back end of I.T. organizations,

in hospitality,
in barrier breaking employment

like in the security, and in banks.

And also in retail outlets, and
doing direct customer service.

(Applause)

Directly facing people like
you and me in KFC, in coffee outlets.

I just leave you with
a small little thought that,

yes, change is possible.

And it just starts with one little
change in our perspective.

Thank you so much.

(Applause)

And this is applause,
it's an international sign for applause.

Thank you so much.