The System Wasn’t Built for Us
Sometimes exclusion isn't caused by a single person.
It's built into the design itself.
I've noticed how often Deaf people are expected to adapt to systems that were never designed with us in mind.
Most workplaces, schools, healthcare services, and public institutions were built around one assumption:
Everyone can hear.
That assumption shaped the processes.
The communication methods.
The expectations.
The infrastructure.
Accessibility often arrived later.
Not as a foundation.
As an adjustment.
As something added after the system was already built.
The result is that Deaf people are frequently expected to fit ourselves into structures that were designed around somebody else's needs.
Recruitment processes rely on phone calls.
Appointments assume spoken communication.
Meetings are arranged before access is considered.
Interpreters are treated as optional additions rather than essential infrastructure.
These are often described as isolated oversights.
But together they reveal a deeper pattern.
The issue is not that access is occasionally forgotten.
The issue is that Deaf access was rarely considered from the beginning.
This creates a constant burden.
To ask.
To remind.
To explain.
To justify.
To adapt.
Again and again.
The goal is not simply access.
It is belonging.
Because there is a difference between being accommodated within a system and being included in its design.
Equity does not come from patching gaps after they appear.
It comes from recognising who was missing when the system was built and choosing to build differently.
Because when a system was never designed with you in mind, inclusion requires more than adjustments.
It requires redesign.
