Juliet England: Starbucks opens first signing coffee shop

Anyone who has a hearing loss has struggled at some point in a busy café, unable to catch the barista’s words as an increasingly irate queue builds up behind them.

Personally, I often get a companion to help out, or make an educated guess about what the staff member has said, based on the limited range of likely questions. (They’re going to be asking if you want hot or cold milk, after all, not your view on remaining within the Single Market.)

That’s not to say that restaurants and caffs can’t be tricky sometimes. Now US coffee giant Starbucks, which has hit the headlines in recent years for its low levels of corporation tax, is launching its first ‘Signing Store’ in the US for deaf or hard-of-hearing customers this October.

The branch, in the US capital Washington DC, is near the campus of the world’s only university aimed at the deaf, Gallaudet, which has more than a thousand students from 25 countries.

The store will be one of nearly 30,000 outlets which Starbucks runs worldwide, but the company’s first branch of its kind in the US. And it’s in an area of the city where deaf culture is becoming an increasingly important part of daily life.

Up to 25 of those taken on to work at the branch will have some form of hearing loss, but every staff member will have to know how to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL).

The move follows the opening in 2016 of a Starbucks store in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur with 10 deaf staff members (called ‘partners’), including a shift manager. The corporation joined forces with the Society of Interpreters for the Deaf (SID) to hire, train and coach deaf employees, and to teach sign language to those who could hear.

At the same time, San Francisco restaurant Mozzeria, opened in 2011, is deaf-owned and all workers are ASL users, while there’s even a restaurant on the Gaza Strip where a dozen of the 14 staff are deaf.

In the Washington coffee shop, which has been in the pipeline for a number of years, any customer who isn’t able to use sign language can still place their order at the counter using an alternative form of communication.

This will usually consist of filling out a card at the counter rather than spoken
language.

There will be artwork from a deaf artist on the mugs, and in the shop. Hearing staff members will be identified by a pin to show that they can use ASL, while deaf baristas will be wearing aprons from a deaf supplier which has a design for the fingerspelling of the word Starbucks on them.

Meanwhile, communal seating areas will have low-glare furniture so people can sit and chat in sign language more easily.

Speaking to the Washington Post, chief executive of America’s National Association for the Deaf Howard A Rosenblum described the new coffee shop as “an innovative approach to incorporating deaf culture that will increase employment opportunities and accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing people, while at the same time educating and enlightening society.”

The point about employment is an important one – research has shown that while 82% of 18 to 44-year-olds in America were in work, for those with a moderate to severe hearing loss, the figure dropped to 58%. (Meanwhile, 12.8% of the hearing population graduated from college, as opposed to 5.1% of hard-of-hearing or deaf people.)

Roughly 200 of Starbuck’s current employees worldwide identify as deaf or hard of hearing, according to a company representative, including at locations such as roasting plants.

The British Deaf Association urged others to follow Starbucks’ example, saying: “Sign language users don’t have equal access with hearing consumers across many sectors – there’s still a long way to go.”

And Oscar-winning deaf actor Marlee Matlin tweeted: “Can’t wait to sign my order for a hot chai latte.”

However, some questioned why the company’s other stores didn’t have a sign language training programme, and pointed out that every branch should recruit ASL users as staff members.

Finally, Twitter user Dara Baldwin (@NJDC07) tweeted: “This is segregation so #Deaf people in #DC should only go to that store if they want to communicate.”