The unexpected Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new terms to our world, including the concept of essential and non-essential businesses. Throughout my career, I have been told my line of work, or some form of it, could be deemed as non-essential. Typically, I have found that this usually comes down to taking on added risk to save some cost.
At the start of my career, I headed to Houston, Tex., to teach the deaf and hearing impaired. This is where I first came to realize the detrimental impact of something seeming to be categorized as non-essential. Due to budget cuts, our particular special education program lacked some of the necessary educational development tools others received. The thought process of some was the use of these types of resources was more or less deemed non-essential for those with certain learning challenges. Faced with this challenge, I would take some of this material, modify it to address the student’s learning needs, and turn their perceived learning disabilities into capabilities. Some ended up attending college and working successfully, becoming gainfully employed. Later, my use of sign language interpretation skills came in handy as I was able to aid a hearing-impaired technician pass his IICRC Carpet Cleaning Technician examination.