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Two years ago I was a manager in the telecoms section,
and we received six deaf people into my team.
I hadn't worked with deaf people. I didn't know how they interacted.
So I went and looked for help inside the bank
for tools the bank offered, and also external resources.
I did a course on Sign Language.
After this course I understood the culture
and I was then able to communicate effectively.
I can truly say that it was really difficult before.
There was a communication barrier, that made everything harder.
Marcos helped us a lot.
He had the idea to set up sign language classes.
The communication has really started to flow.
After we understood the needs of our deaf colleagues,
we set up a course
for learning sign language.
We formed three groups,
a total of 90 people learning sign language,
to communicate better.
They are the teachers,
and this increases their self-esteem,
and helps integration into the team.
At first this course was only for the teams that had deaf colleagues,
but the demand was so high, we had to start other groups.
Today, people can hand us assignments
as if we were like any other employee.
There is no difference at work.
When people come and ask me something, I can support them.
There are no more barriers.
Now the work is easier and more fun.
I am better able to communicate with my colleagues,
and that makes everyone feel better.
It is really nice to be able to use sign language,
and I am now using it day-to-day with my daughters,
as well as my colleagues.
It's become a craze within the bank, everybody is using it.