Case Study: Naim Ahmed

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Naim was born with severe hearing impairment and was fitted with an implant fitted 14 years ago. He completed an IMI full time level 3 Body Repair qualification at Cardiff and Vale College. As part of the learning programme he had a work placement in a local garage two days a week, with a view of the garage employing him at the end of the programme.

Unfortunately, when the Covid pandemic hit, the garage had to lay Naim off. He currently works as a part time delivery driver, but he would really like to get back in to the motor industry.

On asking Naim’s views and comments about any challenges he found working in the motor industry with a hearing impairment, he said that the biggest challenge for him is noise. Due to his hearing impairment, he finds it particularly difficult in a noisy situation and must rely on lip reading. The pandemic has also proved to increase this challenge because masks muffle the sound. Naim said that the clear face visors are even more of a problem as they tend to be shiny so you cannot lip read and the plastic stops the sound waves. In any situation like this he said he finds himself having to ask people to repeat again and again which makes him feel useless.

In his current role as a delivery driver, he has to sometimes speak to the customers via the telephone which is very difficult for him, he has explained this to his company but they are not interested in changing the system for him.

Naim was asked about any positive changes that his training provider, or employer had made to help him succeed. He explained that when he was in college his tutor was fantastic and would ensure that he had all the help and support that he needed. All his lectures would be written out for him and they would ensure subtitles for him to read on training videos. Communicating in college or in the garage was fine, because all of Naim’s colleagues were aware of his hearing impairment and they would be happy to make sure they made good face and eye contact with him so he could also lip read as well as listen to them.

Naim told us that he has not been subjected to bullying or any abusive comments due to his disability at his college or the body shop. He told us that he has never had any situation where he felt that he was bullied or picked on. He said that he always got on very well with his classmates in college and his colleagues in work in the garage placement.