COEUR d'ALENE — A storm of orange work shirts rolls through the hallway at Alliance Data, dotted with bright blue gloves amid wheeling gray trash cans and fresh cleaning supplies.

This janitorial storm is led by John Parker, the night shift supervisor for IGI Advanced Cleaning Services.

Parker leads his team to the cafeteria, where he signals for the commencement of a sanitation siege that will leave every surface sparkling.

Anyone walking by would have no idea that four of the five members of Parker's crew are deaf or hearing impaired, including their fearless leader himself.

"At 18 months old, I was bitten by a mosquito and got a very high fever," Parker stated in a written interview Tuesday. "(I) lost hearing due to fever."

Parker, of Post Falls, worked in a machine shop in Kansas prior to looking for work in North Idaho. He became a participant of the Employment Services program of Community Connections, Inc., an agency that helps find careers and jobs for people with disabilities.

"(My hearing) does not affect my ability to work!" Parker wrote. "Sometimes it is hard to find employment because of language barrier."

Through the Employment Services program, Parker met employment specialist Sarah Andrews, who reached out to his future employer, Igor Malanchuk, general manager of IGI Advanced Cleaning Services.

Malanchuk and Parker communicated through writing during the interview and Parker was hired on the spot. Since then, he has advanced from a crew member to shift supervisor and he has hired others who have different levels of hearing disabilities.

"John completely runs the whole crew, scheduling and all, hiring and firing," Andrews said. "He went from unemployed to running his own crew in a few short months due to his hard work and the willingness of his employer to give him a bigger opportunity."

Malanchuk said when Andrews called him about employing individuals who are deaf and/or mute, "for me it was a no-brainer."

"When I came to this country I didn’t speak a lick of English," he said with his robust Russian accent. "I said, 'What's the big deal?’ They don’t speak and they do the work, yeah, that’s it, simple as that."

Malanchuk said he has felt more challenged than his hearing impaired crew at times because of the language barrier he has experienced since coming to the U.S.

"They’re just people," he said. "We’re all disabled in some ways. We’re not perfect, meaning what? We’re all disabled."

Theresa Vaughn-Casey,

the hearing member of Parker's team, has been with the crew about a month and a half. She said between everyone on the team, they communicate in five different languages — American Sign Language, Signing Exact English, Pidgin Signed English, spoken English and Russian.

"The really funny thing is we all have different languages and there’s never a lack in communication," she said. "We're nonjudgmental, we’re patient and we genuinely like each other."

She said she definitely respects Parker as a supervisor because he has great leadership skills and their crew works well under his direction.

"He gives us the freedom to be adults and think for ourselves," Vaughn-Casey said. "We do a good job, he doesn’t have to babysit. He’s a really good boss. It lightens that pressure so you know you can just do the work and not worry about it."

Kit Eagar, maintenance specialist for Alliance Data, said he hears nothing but good things about Parker and his crew.

"We are proud to work with these people and give them that opportunity," Eagar said. “I think it’s a benefit for all of us."

Hiring people with disabilities also has a financial benefit for employers. According to Andrews, Malanchuk will receive a $9,000 federal tax credit, known as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, for each individual who works at least eight hours a week for one year.

"We would like for more employers to see that hiring an adult with a disability can be very successful," Andrews said.

Tesh, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to providing opportunities for people with disabilities or other challenges, also has experienced success when placing disabled individuals in janitorial positions. CEO Frances Huffman said several Tesh crews clean Lake City and Coeur d'Alene high schools and in the summer the crews are responsible for cleaning upkeep at Farragut State Park.

"What a crew does is almost like a support for the people who are learning to work, learning to be more independent at work and learning skills to work within the community," Huffman said. "We have people who have worked on our crews 1-3 years and then can get a job in the community because they've got some training."

And the WOTC tax credit, while a bonus, is not why employers are happy to have disabled or otherwise challenged people on their team, she said. It's about loyalty and pride in doing the work.

"It may be an entry level or a job that other people see as a stepping stone," she said. "Someone with a disability in that job would give you all they have for several years."

It's also about inclusion, she said. Disabilities come in many forms, such as injuries or birth defects, and everyone knows someone who is affected.

"The world of disabilities is not only certain groups of people. It could be you or I in a wreck tonight," Huffman said. "It speaks for a business when you are inclusive. They make a statement that anybody's included in that business."

Parker said working as a supervisor for IGI is comfortable because it is easy to communicate with the hearing and non-hearing people on his crew.

"Igor trusted me to make my own decisions," he wrote. "It was liberating to be able to make decisions and have people see that I am smart and very hard-working."

For others who face challenges in their daily lives and in the workforce, Parker stated it is important to have patience and understanding.

"Everyone needs job satisfaction," he wrote. "Don't worry about your 'disabilities.' Concentrate on your 'abilities!'"

Malanchuck shares Parker's perspective and said employers need only think about whether their employees can get the job done well.

"We all have disabilities in one way or another," he said. "The question is, what do you do with those challenges? As a business, you just address those challenges as they come. It’s very simple. Every job requires specific sets of skills; we don’t hire the whole person, with the likes and dislikes, I don’t care what kind of ice cream they like or whatever. If they can do the job, that’s all there is to it. Let’s match your skills to the ability. The rest is irrelevant."