The seventeen-year-old girl, a mentor and role model to others like her in the community, has gone to hell and back since her stint in “administration” was cut short and reportedly without warning.

With the support of her family, friends and a local support group, the teenager’s headed back out into the big world to look for another job, showing the gutsy and positive approach to life that’s endeared her to many.

But in the wake of her treatment, the Dubbo and District Support Group for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired has urged bosses to seek help from disability support agencies before uttering “you’re fired”.

A representative of the support group yesterday told how its members were “horrified” how much the girl, called ‘Josie’ for the purposes of this story, had suffered because of the “unfair” experience.

“This young person has also been an active local support person and advocate for local deaf children, and has spoken personally to parents of newly-diagnosed deaf babies reassuring them that life as a deaf person can be positive,” the group representative said.

Asking for anonymity for herself and ‘Josie’, the representative urged employers to “pick up the phone book, look to D in the yellow pages” and access assistance from local agencies including Break Thru Employment Solutions , the National Disability Co-ordination Program, the Disability Information Advisory Service Incorporated and others.

Available support ranged from on-the-job training and technical advice to wage subsidies and job-jeopardy intervention, she said.

‘Josie’ was three weeks into a three-month trial when the employment axe fell.

Her parents would discover that the “workplace had been very busy” and the installation of a new phone system “did not have capacity to raise volume for hearing-impaired people”.