Posted by Dr. "Stinky" Mahmoud
It was late evening, at a coffee shop, when I had an interesting interaction.
I was at the register when a customer came to the counter to order a drink. He signaled he was deaf by touching his ear and shaking his head. Usually I am sort of slow with signals but perhaps the simplicity of the gesture just clicked. Before I had time to realize the potential difficulty of his ordering a drink from the menu of many drinks with countless alterations, he signaled that he wanted his drink by pointing to a sign of a featured drink. He didn't just point, though, he also sort of palmed his chest as he pointed as if to say: "I'll have this." I nodded my understanding then ran into a problem. How do I ask him what size he wants? I will admit I was a little proud of myself when, after a brief pause, put my hands out, palms facing each other, and signaled small, slightly further apart for medium, and further for large. I think I also shrugged a bit as if to ask a question. He responded with the same gesture but in a continuous motion that went from small to large and stopped in the middle. I nodded then attempted to ask whether or not he wanted whipped cream on it. I put one hand as though I were holding a cup, and the the other in the spiral motion of applying whipped cream. He gave a shrug and shook his head. All of that took maybe 30 seconds.
This exchange stuck with me because of the simplicity and ease involved. I'm sure he is practiced at dealing with non-deaf people but still, it was smooth and easy. FAR easier than many of the speaking people I deal with. So much so that I pondered the next day over why it was so hard to do the same task with someone who spoke broken English. Would it be insulting to use hand gestures with someone who could speak? Unfortunately I didn't try when I had trouble later with a customer.
Perhaps it was just luck that we were on the same page at the same time, and that he could have been experienced in this sort of situation. Nonetheless, it reminded me that communication can be done through even such a large boundary. Think of that next time you have a misunderstanding or just plain can't understand someone.
I run into this scenario a couple times a month here at the courthouse. As you'd imagine it's a little harder to dicuss legal mumbo jumbo with your hands. Thankfully most of the deaf defendants that come in bring a notebook so we can go back and forth in writing. I dont mind doing it at all, and most of the time they're pleasant and understanding of the fact that it takes a little longer to write everything out. Every once in awhile I'll get a deaf person who, apon watching me writting out directions for whatever it is they're trying to do, will get very impatient and practically grab the pen from my hand. They then proceed to write out what I thought I was going to write, only to get it wrong and forcing me to start over.
ReplyDeleteAlso im pretty sure I once had a shouting match with a deaf guy using only our eyebrows.