Advice for a Deaf Artist in the Video Game/Film Industry
greentooth
Hello, everyone. Forgive me if I posted my topic in the wrong forum since I'm a new member of the Polycount. 
My question is:
Have you ever work with other Deaf artists in the video game/Film industry?
If so, was it very challenging and what does it make it work out well to work together in studio?
If not, do you think the writing on the paper is good enough for the communication?
Do you communicate with other any of the artists or bosses about the project MANY time or just few time each week in person?
Was there a lot of the group discussions(more than 5 people to discuss the project in person) throughout the time?
I'm actually Deaf and want to work as a 3D environment artist for video game industry. I just want to be well prepared when I enter the industries once I get the internship and graduate the college. I really want to make sure of what I can do to make other people feel comfortable for working with me in the studios without too many problems and frustration for them. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking your time to read this and hope to hear from you, everyone
My portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/tythomas063
My question is:
Have you ever work with other Deaf artists in the video game/Film industry?
If so, was it very challenging and what does it make it work out well to work together in studio?
If not, do you think the writing on the paper is good enough for the communication?
Do you communicate with other any of the artists or bosses about the project MANY time or just few time each week in person?
Was there a lot of the group discussions(more than 5 people to discuss the project in person) throughout the time?
I'm actually Deaf and want to work as a 3D environment artist for video game industry. I just want to be well prepared when I enter the industries once I get the internship and graduate the college. I really want to make sure of what I can do to make other people feel comfortable for working with me in the studios without too many problems and frustration for them. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking your time to read this and hope to hear from you, everyone
My portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/tythomas063
Replies
However, art directors who just walk around and talk to you when giving feedback, making it your responsibility to take notes, might not work for you. Or places where reviews take place in a sort of review meeting, where each artist has to take their own notes.
Same goes for assigning new tasks - a good studio would have sufficient concepts and written guidance for a task to minimize the need for verbal communication. There would also be an art bible and style guide to address further questions and to minimize interruptions for the directors and leads. Especially smaller studios may have a more informal way of assigning tasks, involving more verbal instruction.
When interviewing, you should ask how the studios handles those things.
It helped that one artist could lip read really well if you spoke clearly she had no problem following along. She would also translate for other people. She was the first to kick their door down and demand that they hire deaf artists, she was amazing and incredibly persistent. She helped convince the company that they could hire deaf people and that other deaf artists should be hired. She was amazingly talented and just an amazing person over all. I hated bugging her to translate so I learned ASL and took over as the official go-between.
In a lot of ways it was like managing remote contractors, but they where on site with a quicker turn around time on communication. They also became a little more social as I started to translate some of the non-business convos that where going on around them. As a result more people started to pick up sign language and the whole place was a pretty cool place to work, until they moved things to Texas...
The biggest challenges where not day to day operations that was easy enough, most of that communication was non-verbal anyway but it was the weird one off conversations that took place. Things like time off, payroll and benefit discussions, company meetings took a bit of prep work. If we didn't have someone there to translate we had to take meticulous notes and have a secondary meeting in IM. If someone from HR or corporate was involved they had to stick around and make sure ALL questions where answered. It was a bit of a drag for them but the company was committed to supporting everyone (and not getting sued, ha).
Phone calls before texting was a thing, where a pain. We had to use TTY a translation service/device, it was weird. Now we would just text.
There are some differences to deal with and "we didn't think about that" scenarios but the biggest hurdle is getting the employer to realize it's not a big deal.
kidding aside, 95% of the job is head down cranking out work and most communication is via studio IM or email, sure there are sometimes large team meetings but those tend to be less common that just 1 on 1 communications, which can be done in any medium.
I have worked with deaf artists in the past and it wasnt an issue. it might take a couple days for everyone to realize you are deaf but after that I dont see it being a problem at all. Just keep givin'er and making dope art and you will have no problems
I've never had any issues working with anyone, where some would require some other mode of communication, be it written, audio or across language barriers! Everything can be overcome
Don't worry about it, work on your artskills!
If the studios aren't willing to accommodate... then you wouldn't want to work there anyway!
Thank you, everyone. I'm very glad to hear that the communication won't be a big problem especially due to the apps like Shotgun and Jira. Your feedbacks put my mind to rest. I appreciate that a lot! I will focus on my art skills from now on