Like many deaf people, I often have to request for assistance or accommodations for events ranging from meetings and social events in order to benefit from whatever they offer. These accommodations may be in the traditional realm of sign language interpreters, note-taking services, and captioned media, but they can also be more informal, such as asking a person to talk in a certain manner, or if I can secure a person who will stay with me at all times throughout a social event. (Incidentally, I’ve decided that the only way I’ll join a social event nowadays is if I know for sure that someone else there is willing to stay with me the entire time, since this is the best way to prevent the event from turning into a “watch this person talk about a mysterious subject for thirty seconds and then switch to watching another person” situation.)

On the other hand, when I request for assistance, I worry that I inconvenience others. This is not new for me (I wrote about this a year and a half ago), but with the prospect of having to attend more group meetings and events in the future, I worry about if others will view me as a burden, if they do not think so already.

Unfortunately, I preoccupy myself about whether I inconvenience others way too often than is healthy or necessary. For instance, I often wonder if sign language interpreters distract other students. I remember my very first class at Williams (wow, that was a long time ago…) where the professor remarked that a lot of the students were exchanging glances at the sign language interpreters (though to be clear, she was not saying this in a derogatory manner, and I have never had another professor say this in any other class). So other students do notice them, but for how long? For the sake of their own education, I hope the novelty factor wears off in the first few minutes and then it will be as if they were in a “normal” lecture without sign language interpreters. Now that I think about this, I really should have asked the people who shared many classes with me about if the interpreters affected their focus. I also wonder about how this affects whoever is lecturing. My professors have varied wildly in how much they interact with the interpreters, both during and outside of class.

Sign language interpreting services are the prominent reason why I worry I inconvenience others because they are very visible. Another, possibly less intrusive accommodation would be captioned media. I use captions as much as possible, but hearing people don’t need them. If they are there, is it an inconvenience for them? Captions that have white text and black background can obscure a lot of the screen. This is why even though I’ve only used them twice, I am already a huge fan of closed captioning glasses. They provide the best case scenario: high-quality accommodations with minimal hassle to others.

The vast majority of people do not express overtly negative reactions when my accommodations are present, but likewise, I have had few direct reassurances from others that I do not inconvenience them. I remember exactly one time where a non-family member told me I was not inconveniencing her: a few years ago, a Williams professor relieved me of a few concerns when she told me that having extra accommodations in lectures was not distracting her at all.

While this blog post might convey a bleak message, there is, oddly enough a very simple yet hard to follow method to ensure that you don’t feel like you are inconveniencing others, especially in workforce-related situations.

That method is to do outstanding work. If you can do that, and others are impressed, then you know that you’ve been able to overcome the various minor hassles related to accommodations and that you’re an accepted member of the community. If not, then either the situation doesn’t fit in this kind of framework, or it might be necessary to re-evaluate your objectives.