Author: Karen Putz

Glenda Watson Hyatt has invited me to share the spotlight at her Reader’s Cafe Wednesday, February 6 from 4 to 7 p.m. Pacific Standard time. That’s from 6 to 10 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Glenda plans to tackle some questions related to the recent denial of service at Steak ‘n Shake such as:

Why didn’t you go inside to order your milkshake? (I know why, but I would like Karen to explain why.)

Is this type of incident common for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing?

What don’t most people understand about being Deaf orhard of hearing? What are some typical barriers you face daily?

Some unenlightened souls say you shouldn’t even be driving because you wouldn’t hear sirens coming, and thus, are a safety concern on the road. How do you know when to pull over for emergency vehicles?

As a person with a disability, surely you unfortunately encounter annoying and discriminating situation frequently. What was it about this particular situation that made you fight it rather than brush it of?

What steps have you taken so far to advocate for your rights?

You’ve used social media, like blogs and Twitter, to tell your story. What kinds of responses or results have you experienced? How have you managed to keep up with all of it?

Read more at: Glenda’s Reader’s Cafe

Last night, I met up with Darren and Sheri Therriault at the West Suburban Association of the Deaf. I am one of the past presidents of this club and Dennis O’Brien, the current president has taken the club to new heights.

Darren played the passenger in the Pepsi Commercial that will be airing today during the Super Bowl pre-game. During the “Deal or No Deal” game last night, Darren and I provided the “commercials” for the breaks.

So many people came up to me last night to share their own stories about drive thru struggles. Most of them related stories about attitude barriers. It is clear that we need to make some changes in the restaurant industry when it comes to serving deaf and hard of hearing customers.

Darren and I and our spouses had to leave early last night. I had to pick up my kids and he had to get up early to do the ABC News this morning with Karen Meyer:

“Bob’s House” to Air During Super Bowl

Photo descriptions:
#1 Sheri and Darren and me
#2 Darren and Dennis O’Brien doing a commercial break
#3 WSAD “Howie” leading the way

This morning, I had a meeting with three of the executives from Steak ‘n Shake. Joining me at the meeting were Beth Donofrio, a board member from Illinois Hands & Voices and Howard Rosenblum, an attorney from Equip for Equality with me. Beth assisted me in taking notes at the meeting.

Steak ‘n Shake started off with an apology and said, “We believe in admitting when we make mistakes and learning from them.”

I had the opportunity to explain what transpired at the drive thru window and they shared that the manager completely failed to follow their five-step procedure for delivering customer service. The incident was recorded on their camera system. The executives have viewed the tape, but there is no sound.

We discussed different ways that Steak ‘n Shake could improve their service to people with disabilities. The executives listened with an open mind and it appears that they are willing to implement some changes to ensure that this type of service breakdown does not occur again in the future.

I am cautiously optimistic that we are taking steps in the right direction. It remains to be seen what progresses from this in the coming weeks. Steak ‘n Shake will be getting back to me on this.

Here’s an interesting comment that was left on the Steak ‘n Shake post:

My dear aunt is physically handicapped and has a tendency to take things personally. For example, even when family members give her corrective feedback, she easily gets hurt. When she doesn’t receive the special treatment she expects, she assumes she’s being mistreated for her disability.

I’ve been to the Bolingbrook Steak n Shake. As a customer, I know this manager and he is a nice person. I’m sorry you were hurt Karen but I think you were both having a bad day and you were both being rude to each other and you both owe each other an apology. He denied you service because he FELT he was being abused, not because you are deaf. And perhaps, maybe you are taking the situation too personally, as my aunt would.

Again I’m sorry you were hurt by the situation but it’s not the end of the world, right? You and your loved ones are healthy and alive and that’s all that matters. You shouldn’t let your world revolve around this one incident. Forget about what happened and do something fun today.

Dear Anonymous Commentor,

When I drove up to the Steak ‘n Shake drive thru, I wasn’t asking for “special treatment” as your aunt perhaps does. I was asking for “equal” access to a service, one that I have used at that very same drive thru several times before. With a simple modification, Mr. Manager could have taken my order as other Steak ‘n Shake employees in the past have done, and I would be just another satisfied customer happily drinking a shake along with my son.

Unfortunately, Mr. Manager decided that he could not accommodate me that day. I’m a pretty patient gal, and I’ve done this countless times with other drive thru employees. Even after explaining it once, twice and explaining the Americans with Disabilties Act and showing him my hearing aids, Mr. Manager still could not make the decision to serve me, the customer.

Of course, after all of that explaining, I was frustrated and not to mention upset that I was being denied milkshakes on the basis of not being able to physically use the speaker. If Mr. Manager has translated that into rude behavior, well that’s his view and it should not have prevented him from filling a milkshake order. From my training as an employee of a retail store years back, customer service is a high priority.

And for the record, I was having a wonderful day until I pulled up to the Steak ‘n Shake. I decided to treat my son to one of my favorite shakes and he was all excited about that. All Mr. Manager had to do was make a simple modification to take the order at the window, especially when it was explained to him several times WHY the accommodation was needed. He failed to deliver on that, stated he could call the cops and asked me to leave. He must have been having a heck of a bad day.

In your comment you stated, “You both owe each other an apology.” That is not going to happen on my end. I was blantanly discriminated against by Mr. Manager. I will not apologize for raising my voice when my rights were violated.

You say that I shouldn’t let my world revolve around this incident. I have heard from others who have had similar struggles at the drive thrus. In the large majority of the time, it comes down to the attitudes of the people doing the serving.

There comes a point where one must stand up and say “we need to change this so it doesn’t happen again.”

I turned on the TV this morning to catch Mike Barz interviewing Darren Therriault on his participation in the Silent Pepsi Commercial:

Good Day Chicago.

A big thank YOU, hand wave and shout out to Michelle who took the time to type out the transcript and send it to me:

Announcer: For a lot of folks, the best thing about the Super Bowl are the commercials. This year one of the most creative ones comes from the folks at Pepsi that’s because the entire spot is silent. It’s designed to being awareness to the Deaf community, it’s closed captioned, as well, for us so don’t adjust your volume on your set, just watch.

(Commercial plays)

Announcer: Tell you what, it definitely gets your attention, and one of the big stars of the commercial, that’s what I’ll call you, the man in the passenger’s seat, Darren Tourot (sp?), who is also, you’re not an actor, but you’re an employee of Pepsi and welcome to the show, we appreciate you coming by.

Darren: Thank you.

Announcer: How did this all come to be for you? Did somebody approach you at work and say do you want to star in this commercial?

Darren: Yeah, exactly. That happened over a year ago. Clay Wesser(?) from Plano, Tx. He came up and recognized that I was Deaf and working in Chicago, and so he came up to me and asked if I wanted to participate in the Super Bowl, and I’m like ‘Really? Are you serious!?’ (Announcer laughing) and I said, OK, I’ll give it a try, and I had more time to think about it over the year.

Announcer: I’m sure there are a lot of people at home thinking you are Deaf, since birth, correct?

Darren: Yes.

Announcer: But you have particularly an implant that you can…(Darren agrees). It really raises awareness, this commercial, for the Deaf community, my understanding is that’s a running joke in the Deaf community, is that correct(referring to the commercial)?

Darren: Right, right.

Announcer: So what is the overall goal for this commercial?

Darren: Yeah, you know, my passion is to be able to increase the awareness in the Deaf culture as well as with people with disabilities. Because, you know, it’s been awhile, and I thought that PepsiCo has treated me so well and I have learned so much about the diversity and the inclusion, and I had to do something to give back. And this is my way of doing it.

Announcer: So you work in the IT department, is that correct?

Darren: Yes.

Announcer You’ve been working there for a year, and now you’re the big star, the face of this. You know, and speaking of this, raising awareness for the Deaf community, as we were chatting right here you’ve got the implant so now you can hear with 90% of sounds?

Darren: Yes

Announcer: So, but it’s been like, you compared it to a rusty faucet, turning it on after 30 years (Darren laughs) explain that to me.

Darren: Yeah, it’s almost like when you turn on the implant for the first time, I, uh, it’s almost like you haven’t used the water you know in the faucet for over 20 years and then you turn it on, and then all of a sudden it’s yellow and rusty, you know, and it’s not clear, and you can’t drink the water yet or you can’t make use of it. So, and then after it gets cleaned out, you start to hear.

Announcer: Yeah, so how long were you, did you go without, ‘cause you read lips.

Darren: Yes.

Announcer: And obviously sign. How long did you go before you got that implant, how old were you?

Darren: I started it about five years ago.

Announcer: Oh really!?

Darren: So, I was only 40 years old when I had my first implant.

Announcer: I can’t imagine what that must have been like. With all these sounds that you had never heard before.

Darren: Right.

Announcer: Yeah.

Darren: Like the birds, and all the other sounds that I normally could never hear. It just amazes me.

Announcer: Yeah, well, we appreciate you coming by, (to camera) Darren Tourot, works for Pepsi, now is a big-time star, so I will be his agent, I will take, um, (to Darren) I’ll only take 4%, is that OK? (Darren laughs) So you can see him on the commercial Super Bowl Sunday and certainly go to our website if you want to find out some more information about that, it’s great to meet you (shakes Darren’s hand) and good luck with everything.

Darren: OK, thank you.

Dear Anonymous Commenter who left a nasty comment at 11:10 p.m. on Friday night:

Unfortunately, you had too many f-bombs and b-words in your comment for me to allow it on this site. One previous f-bomb comment was enough for me to let through already.

You accused me of planing (I think you meant planning) this whole thing for money. I think you’re missing something here. I drove up to the window and explained that I couldn’t use the speaker and ordered two small milkshakes, one vanilla and one chocolate.

If Mr. Steak ‘n Shake Manager had simply taken my order and given me the milkshakes, I would have been merrily on my way with a happy son by my side, with both of us enjoying our treat. Even if Mr. Manager argued and then completed the order and we had gotten our shakes, it would have been just another bad day at the drive thru and I don’t think the TV stations nor WLS Radio would have picked this up. Unfortunately, Mr. Manager’s actions and denial of service turned this into a different result.

As for what’s going to happen after this, I do not know. We have a meeting with Steak ‘n Shake’s representatives and I would like to see improved access at their restaurants.

Stay tuned.

Fox News Chicago covered the Steak ‘n Shake Denies a Milkshake story:

Deaf Woman Says Steak ‘n Shake Refused to Serve Her

How ironic is it that I can’t access a news story on the web because it isn’t captioned? I dream of the day when it’s all accessible!

Here’s ABC New’s coverage:

ABC News

It is not captioned, but the story is below the video.

Fox News is covering this at nine and ten p.m. tonight and tomorrow morning.