At GOJO, we all are rooted in our personal foundations that give our lives meaning, texture, and direction. We strongly believe that these multiple perspectives foster community, drive innovation, and inspire excellence. This post is the latest in a series from GOJO team members and partners sharing their personal or cultural experiences that shape each of us and our communities. These stories are an important part of how we gain new perspectives, learn from others, and ensure GOJO is a place where everyone can bring their full authentic selves to the pursuit of our Purpose.
If You Have Questions About My Hearing Disability, Don’t Be Shy. Ask.
By Donny Harris, Senior Engineer, New Product Engineering & Commercialization, GOJO
I was born with profound hearing loss in both ears. Thirty years ago, hearing aid technology was in its infancy compared to today.
For many who know and work with me, you’ll notice I have a cochlear implant, Nucleus 7. It is a small, advanced electronic device that sits behind my ear, and a second portion is surgically placed under the skin of my skull. While the implant doesn’t restore my hearing, it does provide a useful representation of sounds in the environment to help me understand speech. I am blessed with a device that allows me to hear clearly and communicate well.
Earlier in my life, because of my disability, some people viewed me as unintelligent and unable to have an everyday life. This was not the view of my parents – my greatest advocates. My parents pushed me to be confident and ask questions if I didn’t understand or hear a question completely. Today, I am thankful for all my childhood years of speech therapy, which I didn’t always enjoy. Still, my speech lessons significantly improved my hearing and speech development and prepared me for college at the University of Akron.
After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I joined GOJO and will celebrate my 10th anniversary in December. As a Senior Engineer for New Product Engineering & Commercialization, I love designing and validating new systems for new startup commercialization and scale-up. My development projects have included exciting new pump technology and wall-mounted and counter-mounted systems.
My disability hasn’t hindered my opportunities, including traveling and working with technical engineers in New Zealand, Vietnam, and China. As GOJO engineers, we always have a problem to solve and are surrounded by colleagues ready to come together and tackle any challenge. That is why I love the engineering field and working at GOJO.
One challenge I didn’t anticipate was COVID. In March 2020, we began working remotely via Microsoft Teams. While my cochlear implant assists my hearing, much of my understanding is by reading lips – I’m a lip reader expert! But it is more difficult via a video screen. Thankfully, working with my manager, Shelby Buell, I learned that Teams has a built-in closed captioning feature that I use to stay in sync with the conversation and contribute to the discussion. To me, this breakthrough technology provided the conversation in real-time, and the closed caption indicates who is talking. This has helped me tremendously on conference calls with multiple team members and suppliers.
Another significant milestone was in December 2019, when I married my wife, Mallory. We met through Young Professionals of Akron. As fate would have it, she is a speech language pathologist! At first, I wouldn’t date my wife, thinking she would always correct me, but lucky for me, that is not the case.
However, my speech is an ongoing struggle for some people to understand what I’m saying. My advice in communicating with me, or anyone deaf, is to get to know the person, ask questions, and not be shy or worry about using the “right” words. I am not shy about discussing my hard-of-hearing disability or providing perspective on my journey. I’m also not offended if someone lets me know they don’t understand what I’m saying or need more clarification. The team I work with at GOJO will do this, and sometimes I reword my question or answer or write it down. The more we learn to communicate with each other, the better we’ll be as a company, colleagues, and community.
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