Initial phone interviews went normally. When I got to the on-site, I was given a brief tour of the office.
Unfortunately, when the first interviewers came in, I was told to remove my hearing aids. Now, I’m not totally deaf, but without them hearing normal conversation is very difficult due to damage sustained some time ago. When I tried explaining that they were hearing aids, not earbuds or what have you, I was dismissed and it was restated that I need to remove them.
Now, the rest of the interview was incredibly difficult as I had to rely on reading lips or straining myself to hear them, something I don’t deal with often. For situations where I was focused on the whiteboard or a computer screen, I would wind up missing any comments or questions going my way. As for talking, I had numerous issues just because I’m still not used to having my own voice muted.
By the time we broke for lunch, I basically lost motivation, and was just putting on a smile for the people I was talking to. I will admit that for two panels I “cheated” by inserting a hearing aid so I could actually function normally.
While I was getting walked out at the end of the day, I mentioned offhandedly that my fiancee was disabled, and commented on how it affected our relationship and her work. In response, the recruiter pointed out that one of the engineers with the company was deaf, and went into a bit of detail about how it is working with them. I know this is supposed to be a professional review of the interview process, but I felt a bit of my soul die at the irony there.
A week later I was told by the 3rd party recruiter that they were considering another person for the job. While I was disappointed that the internal recruiter didn’t contact me in the timeframe she gave, I aired a few observations with the process and didn’t bother bringing up the fact that I was handicapped for most of the interview.
Good luck to whoever got the position, I fear you may need it!