Valeria Kazakova

Valeria is a final-year student at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. She manages to fit in an active social life at the university between classes and seminars. She’s well-known in the student union, where she often helps organize events, from gatherings of a few dozen people to events hosting several thousand.

Outside of her studies, Valeria has plenty of things to keep her busy too. A few months ago, she joined Kaspersky as an intern, and is now developing her business analytics skills, learning about the cybersecurity market and, more importantly, discovering what awaits her. She was invited to join the company via a special internship programme for students and new graduates with disabilities.

Valeria has been living with a disability since high school. In her mid-teens, she experienced bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, and her hearing declined sharply. She’d had the condition since early childhood, but she didn’t experience any significant deterioration in her hearing at first. For those with the condition, hearing loss can be deferred by avoiding listening to loud music or playing the drums, for example. More importantly, serious illness is a major risk factor, and this is much harder to avoid. After a severe viral cold, Valeria’s hearing began to decline.

Today, Valeria wears two hearing aids. She first tried them on at school, but it wasn’t long before she removed them – she didn’t want to put up with rude comments from her classmates. It took her some time to accept these unusual accessories, and her habit of covering her ears with her hair is a reminder of her school days.

“Everything is all right now, and I can talk about it when people ask me questions,” Valeria says. “The only thing I don’t like is when people try to see if I’m wearing hearing aids. It’s also really embarrassing when you ask somebody to repeat something, and they just start yelling in response. You don’t always have to speak loudly when you’re talking to people with hearing difficulties. Often, if they don’t understand something, you can just rephrase what you’ve said and speak slowly.”