For much of her early career, Sheri Cane knew what it felt like to be in a room full of people and still be left out of the conversation. Without interpreters, she relied on written notes and outdated communication technology to interact with hearing colleagues. Meetings left her feeling isolated, and she struggled to feel like part of the team.
“I would cry at home nightly because I was not part of the team,” she says. “They would just leave me out.”
These days, Cane looks forward to going to work at Jabil’s defense and aerospace site in St. Petersburg, where full-time American Sign Language interpreters help her communicate with colleagues, participate in meetings and pursue new opportunities. Now a quality inspector, she says the difference has changed how she feels about coming to work.
“Every morning I look forward to coming to work,” Cane says. “My attendance is perfect. I’m included. I’m involved.”
For Cane, whose first language is ASL, having an interpreter means she can participate in conversations as they happen, something she spent years struggling to do without. As National Disability Employment Awareness Month brings attention to employment opportunities for people with disabilities, Jabil’s interpreting program offers an example of how workplace accommodations can affect employee retention, development and advancement.
Making Communication Part of the Job
Jabil launched its ASL interpreting program three years ago after hiring its first Deaf employee at the St. Petersburg facility. The company initially tried using phone-based technology to provide written summaries of meetings, but the approach had limitations. Employees could read what had been said, but they could not easily contribute their own ideas in real time.
“The manager said, ‘This doesn’t work, because the employee cannot provide feedback. What if he had comments that he wanted to say?’” says Nicole Troanovitch, one of Jabil’s full-time interpreters. “Those are now gone.”
The employee wanted to share his ideas and develop his skills, so Jabil hired Troanovitch and Jessica Bass as full-time interpreters, making communication access part of the facility’s daily operations. Word spread among Deaf workers, who began referring others to the company. The program eventually supported as many as 19 Deaf employees at the facility. Today, 13 work at the site.
With interpreters available for meetings, training, interviews and everyday conversations, Deaf employees can take part in discussions without having to rely entirely on written exchanges. For brief conversations, hearing employees may still communicate with Cane through notes, but when something requires more detailed communication, an interpreter can arrive within seconds. Video interpreting is another option when the interpreters are not physically nearby.
That access has also opened opportunities for advancement, including for the first Deaf employee whose experience helped prompt the program, who went on to become a high-level operator with aspirations for a supervisory position. Cane, meanwhile, advanced to quality inspector, a role in which she no longer has to depend on written exchanges to understand what is happening around her or explain her own ideas.
To describe what working without an interpreter felt like, Cane compares the experience to being trapped inside a sealed mason jar, able to see everything happening around her but unable to join in.
“I can see everything going on around me, but I can’t communicate. I’m stuck,” she says.
Having an interpreter, she says, changes that experience entirely. “They take the lid off of that mason jar. They crack the surface, and I feel free. I feel I can communicate, and I have purpose and accessibility.”
Building Understanding Across the Workplace
As more Deaf employees joined the St. Petersburg facility, the program also encouraged hearing colleagues to learn basic ASL, with help from the interpreters and their Deaf coworkers. Lessons cover everyday greetings such as “good morning,” along with words related to safety.
“Even just to have a hearing employee be able to say ‘good morning’ to a Deaf employee has really changed the entire perspective here,” Troanovitch says.
Those everyday exchanges matter to Cane, who says Deaf employees are often expected to communicate through writing, even when ASL is their first language and English is their second. Written conversations can lead to misunderstandings, while the lack of interpreters can leave employees feeling stuck in entry-level positions.
“Without interpreters, people would not stay,” she says. “You always feel like you’re not important.”
Having spent years working without that support, Cane hopes more employers will recognize what Deaf employees can contribute and make communication access a priority. She points to visual focus and attention to detail as strengths she sees among Deaf workers, particularly in manufacturing and technical roles.
Jabil’s work in St. Petersburg is part of a broader disability inclusion effort that has earned the company recognition through the Disability Index for six consecutive years, from 2021 through 2026. The company has been named one of the world’s top disability-inclusive businesses through the index.
For Cane, though, the difference is something she experiences every morning when she arrives at work, where she can understand her colleagues, share her ideas and pursue a career without the communication barriers she once faced. The mason jar she once used to describe her isolation no longer defines her experience at work, where she can now take part in the conversations and decisions that shape her career.