Both Miguel and his wife are deaf. Both came to Easterseals New Jersey's Supported Employment program as clients. And both were starting from zero in a country where they did not speak the primary language and where the systems designed to help people with disabilities often assume a baseline of literacy, sign language fluency, or written communication that Miguel simply did not have.
Miguel cannot read or write. He does not know American Sign Language. He does not know Peruvian Sign Language. The language gap was not just about communication. It was about everything.
His job coach, Briana Sanabria, met him for the first time and faced a problem that did not have a clean solution. How do you build trust with someone when you share no common language? How do you understand what someone wants from work, what they're capable of, what matters to them, when words are not available?
Briana is trilingual. She speaks English and Spanish, and she knows some sign language. She started there.
"Using my Spanish and a little bit of sign language and gesturing, we got to a point where we could communicate," she said.
It was slow. It required patience on both sides. But Miguel came to every meeting. He stayed engaged. He made clear, in the way that people make clear without words, that he wanted to work.
Briana found him a placement at Universal Yum, a warehouse in New Jersey that fulfills subscription snack boxes from countries around the world. The model is simple: customers sign up, choose a country, and receive a curated box of snacks from that region every month. The warehouse fulfillment work is physical, detail-oriented, and fast-paced. It suits someone who works with their hands, who does not need to be on a phone, and who shows up prepared to move.
Miguel showed up prepared to move.
The commute alone would have stopped most people. From where Miguel lives, getting to the Universal Yum warehouse meant taking multiple buses, leaving early in the morning, and spending more than an hour and a half each way in transit. Three-plus hours of commuting, every single day, for a 7 a.m. start time.
He did it. Every day.
Within three months, Miguel was named Employee of the Month.
For a man who could not communicate in any shared verbal or written language with his coworkers, who had arrived in the country relatively recently, who was learning what American employment even looked like, this was not just a recognition. It was a statement. The work spoke when the words could not.
His employer did not stop there. Miguel had been hired on a seasonal basis, which is common in warehouse environments where peak demand drives temporary staffing. But Universal Yum converted him to full-time. They gave him a pay raise. They gave him benefits. And they posted him on their own website as an Employee of the Month honoree, his picture and recognition visible to their customers and staff.
Briana has that photo.
"He worked his butt off," she said simply.
Miguel is not the kind of story that fits a standard intake form or a checklist of employment readiness. On paper, before he got the job, the barriers were significant. No literacy. No shared sign language. A communication gap that most employers would have used as a reason to pass. But Miguel understood something that did not need to be translated: a chance, taken seriously, produces results.
He is now a full-time employee with benefits and a pay raise. He earned Employee of the Month recognition faster than most new hires, regardless of language ability. And the woman who sat across from him in those early sessions, gesturing and signing and trying Spanish words until something landed, considers his placement one of the ones that stays with you.
About Easterseals New Jersey Supported Employment
Easterseals New Jersey's Supported Employment program connects individuals with disabilities to competitive, integrated employment. Job coaches provide personalized support, including resume preparation, interview coaching, employer outreach, and on-the-job training to help clients not just find work, but build lasting careers. The program serves individuals across New Jersey regardless of disability type, language background, or prior work experience.
