GLOBAL HEALTH | Addressing the world’s health challenges
11 April 2008
Meet Mandy Oei
Mandy Oei grew up in Texas, the child of Indonesian immigrants. Profoundly deaf, Oei spent four years at a special school where she received speech therapy and learned to lip read, while studying traditional school subjects. She then attended regular schools and graduated from secondary school. She attended Stanford University in California where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English, with a concentration in creative writing. While in college, Oei applied and was accepted for an internship at Microsoft Corp., the computer software giant. Upon graduation, Microsoft hired Oei as a full-time technical writer. She recently shared her experiences at university and at Microsoft in an e-mail interview with eJournal USA editor Robin L. Yeager.
Question: What were the challenges of attending a regular university? Did Stanford have any special supports for students with disabilities?
Oei: I wasn't too worried about accommodations at Stanford.... They had good support for students with disabilities. Other than that, the challenges that I faced were those of any other student.... Stanford provided American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter support for classes. I lived in the dorms for four years, and I was given TTY access, and my room was fitted with a special fire alarm that has a strobe light for emergencies. The residential staff also was made aware of my needs so that they would be prepared. [TTY is a system that connects the telephone to a screen and keyboard, turning spoken communication into written form.]
Q: How was the transition from university life to "real" work, including the internship experience?
Oei: During my senior year, I was contacted by Microsoft. They had received my resume and were interested in interviewing [me]. I went through a phone interview with the hiring manager. This meant using a relay service as the medium for the interview, which is a little slower than if it had been a direct phone call between two people. The hiring manager was very patient [with this process] and by the end of the interview, I came away with a good general impression of Microsoft because of the experience. The next step was to fly me from Stanford to Redmond [near Seattle, Washington] for an in-person interview with a number of different people. The Microsoft recruiter asked me about accommodations, and when I requested interpreters, they did not ask many questions other than to ask what kind of sign language I preferred to use. That was very impressive to me because it showed that they were familiar with deaf people and their needs.
In the interview process itself, I was provided with two ASL interpreters. I must have spoken with about 12 people throughout, and I liked that none of them showed discomfort at what was likely a new experience for many of them—talking to someone using interpreters. So I was very pleased that they offered me an internship as a technical writer. This set the tone for my future interactions with Microsoft.
Q: What is the work you do at Microsoft?
Oei: At Microsoft, I work as a technical writer. My group owns the documentation for the Windows Embedded and Windows Mobile operating systems (OSes) and for the tools that computer programmers use to make custom versions of these OSes, which are used in a wide range of devices that include industrial machinery, cash registers, and Smartphones and Pocket PCs. I work with programmers to create documentation for these tools, and also the text that is used in the menus, dialog boxes, and other parts that you see on the screen when using these tools. I make sure that the wording is clear and accurate without being too wordy.
Q: What do you think is the primary reaction of other employees to your disability?
Oei: People at Microsoft are used to working with people from a very wide variety of backgrounds, and I've found that this makes for an environment where people are very open-minded and willing to learn about and accept differences. For example, several times I've dropped in on someone that I've never met before, and when they find out that I'm deaf and that we might need to use a whiteboard [a surface on which one writes with an erasable marking pen] or a word processor to have a conversation, they take it all in stride and treat it as usual. I typically don't mention that I'm deaf at all, except when it's required to explain the need for an interpreter, which I think helps provide cues about how to behave in relation to my disability. When someone new joins our group, they usually only need a few tips about how to talk to me effectively, such as remembering not to talk all at the same time in meetings so that the interpreter can follow what is said. Or remembering to face me and talk a little slower so that I can read their lips.
Q: Does your impaired hearing ability impact your work, your ability to travel, or your interactions with colleagues in other offices? If not, how do you manage these activities?
Oei: Being deaf doesn't really impact my ability to travel. For example, I recently returned from a personal trip to California, and I didn't encounter any difficulty making the travel arrangements. The only problem that I had on the trip itself was avoiding getting lost when driving around there, really. At Microsoft, everyone depends heavily on e-mail, instant messenger, and internal Web sites to communicate with each other. These are visual types of communication that don't require sound, which means that being deaf isn't a big issue when it comes to talking to coworkers and to employees at other offices.
For meetings I usually have an interpreter to translate what is said for me, and I have access to relay services for the occasional phone calls that I might need to make. When I talk to individual coworkers in person, if it's an important discussion, sometimes I use an interpreter to make communication easier. But a lot of the time I prefer to speak for myself and read the other person's lips. If I or the other person can't understand something that's been said, we write on something.
Q: How many people work in your unit? Are you the only one with a severe disability?
Oei: My group contains almost 40 full-time employees. While there are other employees in my group who have different disabilities, I'm the only one who is deaf and who uses an ASL interpreter. Medically, you could interpret my deafness to be a severe disability because without a hearing aid I cannot hear anything at all. But I don't think of it that way. Deafness is a part of me, but it's not the first thing I think of when I'm asked to define myself as a person. Being deaf has impacted my life, but it hasn't stopped me from having a productive job, living independently in my own house, or having a lot of friends.
Q: Do you think Microsoft benefits from the investment it makes in its employees with disabilities, including investment in training of other staff?
Oei: Absolutely. For example, before I was hired as an intern, my group manager had an outside consultant come in and do a seminar for my group where they learned how to work with someone who is deaf. This helped a lot with the initial period where we adjusted to working together. Also, several coworkers have taken American Sign Language classes because they are interested in learning the language and want to make talking to me easier. These factors helped with the decision to express my interest in becoming a full-time employee after my internship ended. By being inclusive of people with disabilities when searching for people to hire, Microsoft gains a bigger pool of candidates in which to search and increases the odds of discovering someone who has a lot of talent and who will make a great employee. Having people from many different backgrounds helps provide different perspectives and helps encourage creative thinking.
