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>> [REPORTER]: This is a familiar sight in Rochester. The interactions of the deaf and
hard of hearing community are commonplace and an important of the city's culture.
>> [LANE-OUTLAW]: I think that the deaf and hearing communities are more sharing the communication
responsibilities here in Rochester than in other cities. The communication burden is
not only on me, and here you don't have to educate the hearing community as much, because
they're already aware of it.
>> [REPORTER]: Alicia Lane-Outlaw is a CCO of All Out Marketing. A company that opened
about two years ago that employs local deaf graduates.
>> [LANE-OUTLAW]: What's different about Rochester, I'm seeing, is that more people here have
exposure to the deaf community and the talent is right there in their own bark yard. Graduating
from NTID because the deaf community here is so large. Deaf people do want to live here,
they want to stay here.
>> [REPORTER]: But Lane-Outlaw says companies in the city aren't taking advantage of local
talent and as a result many highly trained deaf grads are moving away to work. President
of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf Gerry Buckley said it can be harder for
deaf and hard of hearing graduates to get jobs but it hasn't always been.
>> [BUCKLEY]: We had a whole generation of deaf and hard of hearing professionals that
graduated with skills, many of them previously went out to work for the same large companies
that traditionally have hired young people. And in the last eight to ten years as the
economy has been challenged, those companies have shrunk in size.
>> [REPORTER]: Buckley said NTID is now focusing on educating the smaller companies in Rochester
about the quality of their graduates and how easy it can be to employ someone who's deaf
or hard of hearing.
>> [BUCKLEY]: Our responsibility is to show them that we have skilled workers who can
come into the workplace, compete and produce products and that the additional cost is not
going to be something that's going to impair their business model.
>> [REPORTER]: He says the long history of deaf education and community in Rochester
means many of the grads want to stay. Sometimes, though, they have to make a tough decision.
Like all young graduates.
>> [BUCKLEY]: Rochester is the number one city in the world for deaf people to live.
Everybody wants to stay here, and as the economy has struggled, job opportunities have changed,
and I understand some of the disappointment, needing to leave and go someplace else, but
often young people have to do that to start their career and get the experience.
>> [REPORTER]: The population of post-secondary students in Rochester that are deaf or hard
of hearing far exceed national levels, but out of the 40 companies represented at NTID's
latest job fair, only four or five were local. Not everyone is discouraged, though.
>> [MILLER]: There are plenty of -- I know if I have -- if I had to find a job, if it's
a big enough company they should be able to conform with the Americans With Disabilities
Act, so I shouldn't have any issues.
>> [REPORTER]: Stephanie Miller is a science student at RIT/NTID. She wants to stay in
Rochester and she's confident she'll be able to find work when the time comes. Fellow student
Monica Wilmot already has a job lined up but she said she was nervous when she first started
looking.
>> [MILLER]: I was worried that I might have a hard time finding a job here myself. Luckily
somebody suggested that I participate in something called the Workforce Recruitment Program,
called WRP.
>> [REPORTER]: WRP, an assistant program for people with disabilities, and Monica says
it provided the helping hand she needed to find a local job. Gerry Buckley said NTID
graduates have look a lot to offer and could contribute to the economic recovery if given
a change. He's hopeful change is not far away.
>> [BUCKELY]: I'm very, very hopeful as the economy comes back, especially here in western
New York and in the Rochester region, that deaf people will have an equal opportunity
to participate in that economic recovery through employment in professional fields.
>> [REPORTER]: From HNR Rochester, I'm Kate O'Connell.