[pomatic]

First question: there's deaf and deaf -- how severe is your loss and how good is your speech? That information will help us help you.

Second - which country do you come from? Many now have some form of assistance dog specifically aimed at deaf ("Hearing dogs" or similar). These serve a very useful purpose in sign posting the fact that you have a disability which is otherwise not visible. They also act as awesome icebreakers. The dogs are bred and trained specifically to deal with situations such as crowded and noisy rooms, and will not be the least bit anxious or feel the least bit threatened in such a situation.

Lastly, there's various strategies for dealing with the phone side of things - in the UK there's NGTT, an app which puts a stenographer on the call too, so it can be subtitled in real time. You can obviously do something similar with a co-worker if necessary.

I'm profoundly deaf. I've run my own software company for ten years, a large chunk of which I was also remote working on a small island (off grid). I don't think being deaf has made an iota of difference to my career, you just have to identify the issues and route round them, as you would any other obstacle in day to day life.

[jason_slack]

> I've run my own software company for ten years, a large > chunk of which I was also remote working on a small island > (off grid).

I'd like to know more about this. The island and how you setup your off-grid existence.