JOIN USConsidered as a negated segment of the society till few years back, the hearing impaired and deaf and dumb youngsters now have a lot more options to choose from. They need not resrict themselves and remain at the mercy of quotas in government jobs because the booming private sector is providing them a lot of career opportunities.
“I can pretty much do all the jobs available to non-disabled people except the army, air force and commercial pilots and related jobs,” says Dhruv Jain, a graduate in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Delhi. The 22-year old hearing impaired doesn’t feel any restriction to build a career but accomplishes his desires with a little alteration. Born in a family of doctors, Dhruv says, “I was interested in Maths but wasn’t sure of the eligibility criteria to appear for medical exams so engineering was the next best choice.” Today, he is happily innovating new technologies and setting examples for the rest.
Even in the much sought after vocational fields, those who thought that honing skills like tailoring and electric work came in handy to sustain livelihood must think again for they can now even opt for fashion designing or engineering like Dhruv. Even beautician courses are another area where the deaf and dumb youngsters can explore an interesting career. From being an expert at skin care to teaching people the art of healthy eating, there is a lot that can be explored.
Apart from this, this section of differently abled can even try their hands at creative fields like graphic designing and professional photography. “We train the deaf and dumb students in tailoring, photography, and computer at our centre,” informs Vijay Chabra from All India Federation Of The Deaf & Dumb. “Most receive the basic training from us and then learn the advanced skills from other private institutes to attain mastery in the field. These days, they are moving a lot towards learning computers which provides them with a chance to explore many other things.
One could also pursue a regular course such as Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Sciences through correspondence as it doesn’t require attending lectures and therefore no need for communication. And of course there is always a scope to help others through social work or by becoming teachers and contribute their bit for education of the deaf.