Sounding out a successful career at PwC

In February 2022, two weeks after Alia joined PwC Singapore from her home country of Malaysia, she heard about an event being organised by the Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) team. It was a “fireside chat” featuring two Para athletes – one of whom worked for PwC – talking about their experiences of life and work as people with disabilities. Her first response was a sense of pride that she had a Para athletic colleague. Her second was that she needed to go along and check out the event for herself.

She’s glad she did. “When I attended that fireside chat, I could immediately see and feel that PwC is a place where I&D is really valued,” she recalls. “For me, that’s where everything started. I walked up to the partner running the event, and the first question I asked her was, ‘How inclusive is PwC for people with disabilities?’ The way she responded made me so happy that I actually teared up. Before then, I’d felt scared and hesitant about revealing my condition. Afterwards, I had the confidence to open up.”

The disability that Alia was opening up about was moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss. In simple terms, she’s hard of hearing, and needs to rely on lip-reading or on-screen captions to catch everything that people say. After explaining this to the I&D partner at the Para athletics event, she told her own partner in the business. His response? “He was very positive about it, very understanding,” says Alia. “He said, hey, we’ve hired you because of your abilities and what you can bring to the table.”

She continues: “He made me feel that I have unique abilities because I'm different from other people. Ever since, whenever I’ve had a new engagement to work on, I’ve been very frank and open with my colleagues. I tell them upfront that I have a hearing condition and that I may need a little bit of extra support during meetings or conversations, since I might not catch everything that’s said. They’ve all been wonderful about it.”

Alia’s condition was diagnosed five years ago. Born with normal hearing, she was working for government-led companies in Malaysia when she noticed she was missing out on some details from client meetings. At first she thought she was simply losing focus. But a visit to the doctor soon revealed the real issue. “My audiologist has told me that sensory-neural hearing loss is actually quite common – as common as people wearing glasses,” she says. “Lots of people suffer from it to a degree but aren’t aware. It’s only when they get it checked that they find out.”

While Alia’s experience of working at PwC Singapore with a disability is now hugely positive, her first day with the firm was tough. Pandemic restrictions were still in force, and wearing masks in the office was compulsory. For someone who needed to lip-read, this was disastrous. “When I was being introduced to my colleagues and they were making small talk, I simply couldn’t join in,” she recalls. “I was frightened even to start a conversation because I couldn’t hear what people were saying behind their masks or catch their names.”

Fast-forward eighteen months, and Alia’s working life feels very different. As well as progressing her career, she’s also become involved with PwC’s I&D efforts internationally. “After colleagues in Indonesia got to hear about me, I was invited to join the panel of speakers on an Asia Pacific I&D webinar,” she says. “Then I took part in a global I&D webinar to raise awareness of digital accessibility and inclusion to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day . These are great opportunities for me to raise awareness of disability inclusion, share my lived experience and be a visible role model.”

Away from work, Alia loves movies – “the subtitles are compulsory” – and karaoke. “People often ask, how can a person with hearing impairment like karaoke? But it’s loud, and I just love it.” She’s also musical in other ways: she plays the piano, and has played percussion – bass drum and marching bell – in a brass band. Another skill she’s learning is sign language. “I really want all of us to bridge the gap between people who hear normally and those who find it difficult,” she explains. “Sign language is just another language that helps us communicate freely. And it's a good thing for everyone to learn because you can bridge the gap.” It’s a gap that PwC is every bit as committed to helping to bridge.