[lucasoman]

Aside from the obvious reasons, this is also great because it allows the deaf to work in a deaf-friendly work environment; everyone or most there probably sign.

Much of a deaf person's life is spent watching, in silence and isolation, as the hearing people around them communicate freely. Depending on the area, socializing a deaf family member can be a real challenge. Finding a job like this would be a huge help.

[electromagnetic]

Agreed, deaf people are often forced to have later social developments. I believe I received my defining social development at around 15 (note: graduation is much younger in the UK where I'm from) when I was reaching graduation and the shit was about to hit the proverbial fan. I realised that there's a time and place for friends, and certain people are just not friend material (this lesson is still helping me).

Deaf people are often stranded until their mid-twenties or even later to reach these developmental milestones in social relationships. Landing a job in a deaf-friendly workplace would place the deaf person in an ideal situation to develop many of these social milestones long before they ordinarily would.

We're an auditory species by nature, so I can only imagine the isolation one must feel being surrounded by audiophiles when you're forced to be a visuaphile(?).

[jacquesm]

I've often wondered what would be harder, be blind or be deaf, and since I love music and love to program I really am stuck in the middle, no matter what I'd lose something that makes me in to who I am. Pretty disturbing.

[ZeroGravitas]

You can program if you lose your sight. TV Raman and Peter Lundblad both work as programmers for Google and are blind.