How Do You Order Fast Food?
Sunday October 8, 2006
SaxManiac asks on the forum:
I work at a Wendy`s as a cashier and had a few groups of deaf people who signed come in this afternoon. The guy in the first group could verbally give me his order but the second couple tried to sign to me and I didn`t understand a bit until they grabbed the guy from the first group to translate. And all they wanted was 2 small cokes. I don`t think I ever would have gotten what they meant if they ordered anything more complicated. I hate standing there and not being able to tell what people want. So could the people who sign on this board tell me how they typically order at a fast food place so I could maybe understand if they or somebody else who is deaf comes again?
I work at a Wendy`s as a cashier and had a few groups of deaf people who signed come in this afternoon. The guy in the first group could verbally give me his order but the second couple tried to sign to me and I didn`t understand a bit until they grabbed the guy from the first group to translate. And all they wanted was 2 small cokes. I don`t think I ever would have gotten what they meant if they ordered anything more complicated. I hate standing there and not being able to tell what people want. So could the people who sign on this board tell me how they typically order at a fast food place so I could maybe understand if they or somebody else who is deaf comes again?
Comments
Pen and paper. Sometimes I try using my voice but it is hit and miss. Next time you see a deaf customer, whip out pen and paper; the customer will be pleased as punch. Of course knowing ASL is even better!
I agree about the use of pen and paper. However, a lot of fast food places also offer visual menus that they usually hand to customers who can’t read or those with visual impairments who need to see things up close. Deaf people can also use these menus to simply point out the things they want. I, myself, prefer the pen and paper method as well.
if you’really that concerned, learn basic sign language! or here’s another idea, how about if someone’s thirsty they hold an imaginary glass to their mouth. duh!
Ruth,the person who works in Wendy’s was considerate enough to to ask what to do in this situation.Telling him to learn basic sign language is not the right answer.Should he learn to speak French, Spanish, Hindu ?? no! all he needs to do is get out his pen and paper for the Deaf person to write his order.
Paper and pencil work great. Or when I am in a foreign country I try to find the “point it out” menu which also works great. Thanks for caring enough to ask and please ignore the woman who told you to learn to sign. To really communicate in ASL takes a lot more learning that this particular instance might be worth. However if you are interested in learning ASL there are usually lots of classes around, check with a community college or adult ed program.
Many different fast food places have hand held menus for the deaf to use maybe you can get Wendy’s to get one
McD’s has them.But hand held menus would make it much easier for the deaf and mute to order
Yes pen and paper. My parents would carry pen and paper with them.They would write out what they wanted then hand it to the cashier. They would have it written out before they even got there. Even thought the picture menu is fine it would be better to get the pen and paper out and write down youring greeting and write down what can I get you? and then have a conversation on paper. My mom’s friend would go thru the drive thru with paper and pen. She would drive to the window hand them the paper and then pull up to wait. Thanks for caring!!! Maybe you can talk to your boss about maybe training all the employees on how to handle deaf customers!
I my self am hard of hearing, i have many ideas for this problem. i have been writing to technology companys with my ideas but so far no one is interested in writing back to someone who is hard of hearing. I will keep trying and if i can get something done i will let everyone know.
Yes, pen and pencil. I don’t disagree entirely with the learning of sign language because I think it would be a great step forward if some basic signs could be learned: hamburger, cheese, soda (at McD’s you don’t have to specific what kind), old (since I’m a “senior citizen” and get a nice discount), dollar, menu, coffee, small, medium, large, etc. Maybe I’m wishing for too much, but I think many non-deaf people would like to learn ASL in order to communicate with the Deaf/HOH. (Today I taught a Chinese woman and her 4-year-old daughter a few signs - now she needs to teach me Mandarin!)
We have adopted a little boy that is going deaf and i didnt know about the menus to point to, but i also think if the person is wanting to learn sign go to your education unit (ESU) see if they have signing classes, we are lucky to be taking signing classes as a family so that we will always be able to talk to our loving little boy. we have learned alot and it is very interesting.
I teach sign language in an Adult Ed. Program. One lesson is all fast food terms. I tell my students never to barge into a conversation, but if it looks like some help is needed to sign “excuse me, may I help?” They enjoy this specific lesson and seem to remember the signs easily. One night in a Cracker Barrell the waitress was trying to get through “do you want corn bread muffins or biscuits.” They appreciated my help.
I commend the person at Wendy’s for caring enough to try and find a solution by asking for advice. Most people wouldn’t have bothered. Signing is a difficult language to learn, I know I have been trying for years, and still know very little. Ruth’s comment was rude, but hearing or deaf, some people are just that way.
I live in Belize, Central America and own a restaurant there. A couple of months ago I had 2 deaf couples on their Honeymoon.
I recantly took a basic SEE course as I am always trying to learn new languages and was pleased as punch to be able to use it although I felt so slow and self concious as their fingers flew while mine plodded.
They were very patient with me and We had a nice conversation. I know my knowledge of sign helped but we used a lot of pen and paper too as I just couldn’t keep up. I think pen and paper is definitely a good bridge between hearing and deaf.
I agree w/ pen and paper, I always have some with me and ready to whip out where I work when the conversation goes beyond my still learning sign abilities. I am hoh/deaf myself, and always appreciate someone who really tries to help me!
Im also very hard of hearing and a resturant is extremely noisy so I use a pen and paper most people at the fast food places I have been are very helpful.
Use paper and pen to communicate with Deaf people. I use it all the time when I go to fast food resturant.
I carry a small notebook in my back pocket. Although most of the time I order a value meal; 1, 2, 3, etc.
As an entry-level job seeker,being a server is one of the most popular jobs.Especially in summer when you have High Schoolers,they should make you take a sign class in addition to the resume seminars.(It is a necessity when you are a clerk in a hospital or doctors office.)As an ASL 1 student,if you are putting me in an internship where I am in the public,Sign is a must.If you are going to make me learn a Foreign language for 2 years,let melearn Sign(I am more likely to use it).
the deaf maybe could put the request on the message part of the mobile phone
I am Deaf, and when I go to a fast food resturant it really puts a smile on my face when the person behind the counter pulls out a pen and paper. It shows to me that you care and are respectful of others no matter their diferent abilities.
It is very rare to come across someone who knows ASL, even if it is good to know other languages, it is better to make someone smile. I know others that talk about it for days when they come across someone who pulls out a pen and paper for something so simple.
(SMILE)
I am learning asl and yes it is hard. Right now I am learning songs for my church. The website I go to is,
http://deafness.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=deafness&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aslpro.com%2F
I love this site I am leaning so much.
Thank you for informing me of pad and pen I will remember that for future use.
I read comments and “how do you order fast food/” by Hearing Impaired people. if a hearing person does not understand what they saying by verbal, body language or sign language THEN the most common sense is to pull out the paper and pen thats if deaf person need you to do so or deaf person happen to have them with him or her. In one of comments I read by Miss Freddie’s. hey Miss Freddie, NEVER NEVER use the word “MUTE”. its VERY INSULTING to deaf/hoh people. Mute means no langauge of whatsoever to speak in anyway. WE do have language to speak in one or two or both ways THEREFORE we are NOT mute!! unless family member or teacher never bother to teach a deaf person any language of whatsoever but don’t use mute at all and that does not mean they are dumb and mute. they just never learned or being taught. thats cruel also. so be careful how you say what word to use around hearing impaired people. thanks and keep learning of how to communciate with deaf people anywhere include fast foods! smile!
Saxmaniac, you are one in a million who cares enough about your job/customers to find this blog (is this a blog? i’m not sure) With an attitude of caring like you have I’m sure you’ll go far in this world, I wish there were more people like you. Keep pen and paper handy because who knows who you’ll meet someday. Bless you for caring.
~Jan K.
I would Ditto most of what everyone has said. A few simple signs like yes, no, thank you, question, and what would also be good signs to know.
Did Miss Freddie really say “deaf & MUTE”!!??
SaxManiac,You have written on a good subject.Thanks from me personally. I have been deaf in right ear most of my life. Ten months ago, I had what is called,”sudden deafness.” In one afternoon lost the hearing in left ear and almost all sound closed down on me.
I had to change my whole life. I am going to classes learning ASL. I love what I’m doing..BUT..it is NOT EASY. Plus,I have no one to sign with to practice my skills (unless you count the cat,I sign and talk to him). If you can’t use ASL in your everyday life,it is easy to lose your skills. But if you want to learn a few signs to help you at work I think you would enjoy it immensely. Also,the good old paper and pencil will NEVER go out of style!! I forget sometimes that when I speak to someone, I won’t be able to hear their reply. One night I went through the drive through at Wendys! We all had a good laugh! But YOUR CARING enough to ask, is what counts for those of us who can’t hear.That means you will work with us to get us what we need. Hearing people are sometimes ill at ease with someone that can’t hear because they don’t know what to do. I tell people I am deaf and what it takes to communicate with me. People are usually considerate and helpfull. Last, let me say, for those who are deaf or hoh, using a little sense of humor, a smile, and giving hearing people the means to help us (as pencil and paper),goes a long way to put at ease the hearing person,when trying to communicate. We all must work together as a means to an end. Ann Dennis
It’s not a world of ignorance, just get out the pen and paper, or cell phones and sidekicks are popular in the deaf community. Just use some freakin commom sense. Also i thank the person for at least trying, thats a start. Our son is proundly deaf and we have been asl since he was 2 years old and prior to that signed english, its not easy to learn. you have to live it, breath and use it.I’m still learning as well as our family.ALSO NEVER, NEVER, EVER CALL A DEAF/HOH PERSON MUTE OR DUMB. Our son graduated with honors and a 4.0 gpa and that was not a deaf school.He was mainstreamed in a regular school, had honors in wrestling, football,ect.. with an interpreter of course.
just try looking up the basic signs for food items and such.. bt make it clear that if they wish to talk otherwise, you will need to use written word instead of a visual language… these ppl who are telling you not to learn signing don’t know you personally, probably…. neither do i…… but if you feel that learning to sign is the best way to remedy the haering/ deaf barriewr in this case, then by God go for it.lol..
peace-
I agree with just about everyone above. But I’m also aware about the Deaf with very little language skills, so it’s best to have pictures of each meal placed on the cashier’s counter. Then the person can just point to what s/he wants. This also works well with nonEnglish speaking/writing people.
Just a note about comments 6, 22, & 25….. Is it possible that Miss Freddie did not mean to imply Deaf are “Mute”? Why I say this is I am very involved in learning ASL (to be a better friend & also learn a beautiful BEAUTIFUL language), BUT I have a cousin who has ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease. While she can hear fine, her disease has taken away her voice. She wants to learn to sign a little, so she can communicate w/o carrying a keyboard around with her everywhere, so I’m trying to help her out there. For my cousin, ordering at a restaurant is as hard as any Deaf. Hand-sized menus would be great to order by. Pen or pencil and paper are always good (paper napkins help when no paper is around). Knowing even a FEW phrases (”How are you?”, “Fine”, “Thank You”) is encouraging to a Deaf customer. I know this because many many years ago I was able to bring a smile to people’s faces when I worked in a fast food chicken restaurant. Your ATTITUDE, SaxManiac, is the best customer service. And THANK YOU to all who help with your comments. I mean that!
This forum has intrigued me. I used to work at McDonald’s (back in the 20th century). Not that I’m that old. The thing that I enjoyed most as the “Hostess” while out in the Lobby was the diversity of the people. I had frequent visits from a family that spoke Spanish and they were willing to teach me more than I currently know. When I misspoke, they helped me learn the correct phrasing. I also noticed a couple people come in where one of them had a hearing impairment. It felt good to know enough sign language to make them feel welcome (especially since that was part of my job). I have always had the mentality that if you don’t have a good time while you’re working, you won’t perform at your peak. Learning ASL or SEE II would be beneficial. People are living longer and vision and hearing are usually the first senses to go. Then senility sets in, but that’s a whole different story.
Someday I hope to learn Spanish Sign Language as well so I can travel back to the Dominican Republic. Right now, however, I am focusing on starting a ministry serving those that have hearing difficulties at the church in which I am part of the body.
May God bless your efforts both today and for the future!
After seeing a segment on news today regarding a nice lady that happen to be deaf and placing her order at a drive thru Steak and Shake restaurant, and having an issue with the person at the drive up window giving her a major hassle about not undersanding her etc- and making nasty comments etc (I didn;t cath all the nasty details) it really touched my heart.
Not being deaf I truly felt for this women…and it made me think is there any type of technology in place (I am not aware of any) for deaf people to place there orders in a more compatable way verses having to speak their order at a drive thru restaurant and have the drive thru worker not have speak back to them but do the transaction like on a key pad of some sort.
Is there some type of touch type pad that deaf people can use at a drive thru restaurant either by the order board or at the drive up winder itself that would be more condusive for them?
You would think some fast food restaurant would have come up with some type of devise to make it easier for deaf people to feel comfortable and their business welcomed to go to drive thru restaurants without being disrespected or having to write their orders down.
With modern technology I would think someone should have thought of this sort of need to give deaf people the same opportunities as hearing individuals to comfortably go to a drive thru restaurant without being hassled or mis understood-
If there isn’t such a devise in place- would anyone feel a devise like this would be a good tool that I should explore this possibilty?
I appreciate any information / comments anyone has on this topic-
Thank you for your time-
Susan- email: Brianjams2@yahoo.com
It’s possible that one reason restaurants do not have anything like a keypad or other device on the outside in a drive-thru, is because they know that it will be stolen or vandalized by the neighborhood kids. (Or by the neighborhood adults that have the mentality of kids!) The speakers can take quite a bit of abuse, but a small pad may not be able to…
There was one place that I had gone to with some friends in Vegas, I forget which fast food place, but it was some popular fast food place there, that we don’t have down here in NY… They actually had a person outside with a touchpad, who took your order for you when the line got too long past the speaker. This allowed the restaurant more time to make the order I guess, since you weren’t limited to 1 stationary speaker. So the technology IS out there - just not widely adopted.
For SaxManiac, I found, when I was working fast food back in the late 90s as a teen, it was great to know even just the basic finger-spelling ABC’s. I usually could understand what the person wanted by lip-reading; but if I had trouble with a word or two there was something to fall back on - Without scrambling to figure out who stole the bloody pen from my register between my shift, and where to get another one! (For some reason, we were ALWAYS short!)
I’m not sure if the majority of people within the Deaf community would agree, so please do correct me if I’m wrong… I know it wasn’t as fast as most Deaf are used to so it would be just single words, “no cheese”, “coke”, etc. (Spelling out letter by letter, vs just signing the whole word, I mean. I know I couldn’t imagine having an entire spoken conversation by speaking in just letters, it would take forever!) But those that I had served back then were always happy to point at what they wanted from the mat we had beside the register and spell out that they wanted “no pickle” on their Big Mac, and that yes, they wanted the “meal”, “med” sized with a “sprite”! And as a plus (for me), they recognized that I actually wanted to learn to speak the more of the language, they would often teach me the sign for “pickle” or “meal” (or whatever it was they were ordering that we were finger-spelling over to make sure was correct) as well, so I could use it for the next time.
ASL is as a tough a language to learn as any other (14+ years later, I finally get to take the courses that I wanted to take years ago, but weren’t offered near enough to where I lived, and meet some Deaf/HoH people from where I now work); finger-spelling was my little trick back then to help Deaf customers, and I’ve even been able to help out when a deaf/HoH person was having trouble at another store.
I know there is MUCH more to the grammar, culture, and language than just the words; but unlike any other language I know of, with finger-spelling, you can say anything you can already (more or less correctly!) spell!
Errr, I don’t have a lot of time to read the previous ones, so if I’m repeating - sorry.
I’m hard of hearing since childhood and it has been very difficult for me to order in a drive-thru window. I solved this problem by just telling to the “board” (I hate talking to a wall!!) that I will come directly to the window to order. Sometimes it flows nicely. Other times I get a manager. Why do they call the manager??? I can order just fine verbally and I don’t need any manager. Couldn’t they wait for me to arrive and then decide if the manager is needed?
When I order inside the store I have no problem as I’m face to face to the employee. Sure, I just ask for the same thing every time hehe, so I know how the employees call the items I order. (For example, I ask in a robotic manner for a Italian chicken parmesan, hold the cheese, extra sauce, fries no mashed, regular cola, no dessert, dinning in. By giving all the info they need I get no question asked.) But when I’m going to a cafeteria, filled of crazy people asking and telling, I just write down what I want before going into the cafeteria.
I’m happy to read that the first post is from a Wendy’s cashier, since I worked once in Wendy’s putting together the sandwiches and other items (assembling line). I loved that job. Even when the computers went down, the employees wrote the orders in paper just for me
)) I think I preferred it that way, because then the orders would come slower and I could work faster hehe. I was treated fairly and my coworkers did look out for me.
Before I received my Cochlear Implant, it was impossible for me to place an order at drive ups. However, because I have normal sounding speech one strategy I used was to tell the person I was “hard of hearing” even tho I was really deaf to avoid the confused “look” when I got to the window. Then I proceeded to order with the real person via voice. I sometimes would have to move forward and wait for the order. I felt guilty about that, but I figured that Heck! I am as entitled to order at that window as the next person!
Carol in WI