August 15, 2019 - John Wilson was born and raised in Becker, Minnesota. He is the only Deaf person in his family. His mom, dad and brothers know some sign, and his grandma was an ASL interpreter for a short time. John went to mainstream school for K-12, and had an ASL interpreter all the way through. When he was younger, he learned ASL first and then learned how to talk. He got his cochlear implant when he was four years old. John attended the University of Minnesota and graduated in 2016 with a degree in sociology.
His position is Senior Target.com Specialist. He does everything related to the Target shopping website, Target.com, from guest services, problem solving/resolution, and helping customers with their concerns and complaints. John’s responsibility is to figure out what the actual problem is so that he can help clients. Particularly related to purchases that customers order on Target.com. For example, if the order is messed up somehow, John helps them to fix the order. Or if a product is broken, missing, damaged, or if the client has a complaint and wants to return the product. If they have an issue or question during the order, purchase, shipping and delivery portions of the target.com shopping experience, they can reach out to John or another team member for assistance.
If someone brings him a complicated issue, John especially enjoys figuring out how to solve the issue. Some problems are easy to fix. But John finds more satisfaction in more complicated issues that require multiple attempts and engaging different resources within the Target company to help get the issue resolved. For example if a product is broken, John contacts the vendor that sold Target that product and tries to figure it out with them. Or if the wrong product was shipped, John calls the carrier that was responsible for shipping the product to figure out what happened.
When communicating with customers, it’s all written or typed information using email or Instant Messaging (IM). However, communicating with co-workers can be challenging. Twice a week John and his co-workers meet for half an hour, then John’s supervisor will provide meeting notes to him afterwards. He reads these notes if he missed anything during the meeting. Target corporation provides John with an iPad for VRI (video relay interpreters). John says that one time when he requested ASL VRI, he was connected with a Spanish language interpreter instead. John and his co-workers at Target use Skype chat and email to communicate with each other. Sometimes if he has to make a phone call to FedEx or some vendor, shipment company, or department, he uses videophone (VP), but does VCO (voices for himself).
John’s advice to others is, “Be aware of the resources available to you and different accessible options. Make sure you work with your supervisor to figure out the best communication strategies. Connect with people at work and make allies in your corner. Advocate for yourself, you know yourself better than anyone else does.”
The #CanDoAnything campaign showcases people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing at work, giving them an opportunity to share what they do at their jobs and explain how communication access works for them. This campaign shows what our community can do, which is anything!
