The Extra Effort

A few days ago I witnessed a deaf man struggle to communicate with his hearing waitress. He wanted to order and she had him (verbally) repeat himself to her a number of times, ignoring his gestures to the menu. Because the waitress was hearing, and he was deaf, the man was required to put forth the extra effort of understanding the waitress, rather than the waitress putting forth any extra effort. This is the way our society has been built; the waitress was not given the knowledge or tools to effectively communicate with this man, and that is not her fault, nor is it the fault of the deaf man. 

Deaf people live in a hearing world, and are, in order to communicate with hearing people, or people uneducated about the deaf community, forced to go the extra mile to understand a language that is difficult for them to fully comprehend. 

Had the menus been designed to where there were photos for every meal, the waitress and customer could have had an easier time communicating. However, had there been photo menus, the deaf man and his waitress still would have had a difficult time communicating. The waitress chose to ignore his gestures to the menu even without there being photos, and, had it been a photo menu, what's to say she would not have done the same? 


How is this to be resolved? 

• Photo menus need to replace (or at the very least, be accessible) standard, text only, menus. 
• Text needs to be clear, concise, and to the point.
• Wait staff needs to be trained to communicate effectively with their customers, verbally or otherwise. (Even someone who could hear, if they had a speech impediment, would possibly need another way to communicate with the waiter/ress.)