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Burger King staff yell and swear at ordering Deaf man

Ce´ cile Meier cecile.meier@stuff.co.nz

Barry Kay just wanted to order dinner for his kids at Burger King.

The Christchurch builder had written his order in big letters on a piece of paper for the drive-through, as he had done before. Kay is Deaf* and cannot use the intercom.

But when he handed over his order at the window yesterday, the operator told him to go inside.

Kay gestured that he had forgotten his mask and could not go inside. The operator said no and shut the window, Kay told The Press using sign language, with his wife interpreting by his side.

‘‘I was shocked. This had never happened to me before,’’ he said.

Kay stayed and waited. The operator opened the window and told him to move his car. Kay gestured that he wanted his order and turned the engine off. Cars behind him were beeping their horns.

The operator started yelling and swearing at him, Kay said – while he is profoundly Deaf, he lip-reads and picks up tone of voice through body language and facial expressions.

Another staff member came out and asked him to move his car. ‘‘I said: ‘No, I have come to order dinner for my kids’,’’ Kay said.

The staff gave up and he finally got his order. But it was wrong.

He told the staff member the order was wrong and he had been overcharged, which made her ‘‘very angry with me’’, Kay said.

‘‘I just had to drop it and leave because I didn’t want to make them even more angry.

‘‘I just couldn’t believe it. What is a drive-through? It doesn’t matter if you are Deaf, you’re hearing, you are disabled – you should be allowed to go through the drive-through. Whether you use your phone to communicate or a bit of paper. It’s simple.’’

Burger King NZ head of marketing Andrea Spearman said the company contacted Kay to apologise after a friend of his complained about what happened.

‘‘Our team member has not handled the situation as we would have liked them to and we have followed up with the team at Burger King Shirley, and across our wider network, to ensure that should a member of the Deaf community come through the drive-through that we are able to handle their order safely at the drive-through window.’’ The company also contacted Deaf Aotearoa to discuss safe order-taking under Covid-19 restrictions.

Hospitality venues had strict Covid-19 guidelines to adhere to, including drivethrough windows remaining closed, Spearman said.

Deaf Aotearoa chief executive Lachlan Keating said Deaf people regularly struggled to order at drive-throughs before Covid-19, and that the pandemic should not be used as an excuse for the issue.

What happened to Kay, and the problems Deaf people faced at drivethroughs, amounted to discrimination, Keating said, and Burger King staff needed to train people on accessibility.

‘‘It doesn’t matter if you are Deaf, you’re hearing, you are disabled – you should be allowed to go through the drivethrough.’’

Barry Kay

‘‘I have personally avoided the drivethrough because I do not like the intercom system. One time I drove straight to the first window to order, rather than placing my order via the intercom. It was an uncomfortable experience.’’

If drive-through outlets had a selfservice station outside where people could order it would solve the problem, Keating said. ‘‘This is universal design thinking – if it works for one group of people, it will work for others too.’’

Staff can be very helpful, Keating said, often removing masks so Deaf people can lip-read, using a notepad on the restaurant computer and turning the screen or writing things down on paper.

But it was not uncommon for staff to refuse attempts to communicate with Deaf people, he said. People are allowed to remove face masks to communicate with Deaf and hard of hearing people so they can lip-read.

* The term ‘‘Deaf’’ – with a capital ‘‘D’’ – is used to refer to people who have been deaf all their lives, or since before they started to talk, and who first communicated in sign language.

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en-nz

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281736977737095

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