During Jon’s last trip to Target, he noticed something unusual: a sign in his checkout lane advising customers, “Cashier Is Hearing Impaired.” He found the sign unnecessary and potentially embarrassing for the employee. What do you think?
Last weekend a took a trip to our local Target. I noticed that in one checkout lane, a sign was displayed reading “Cashier Is Hearing Impaired”. I question the necessity of such a sign. Isn’t it slightly embarrassing for the employee by calling attention to something that may not be an issue?
Just wondering if this practice is widespread and what other Consumerist readers think.
As an aside, I went through this particular cashier’s line with no problems other than her being slightly hard to understand.
Maybe it is embarrassing. Or it could be that the cashier put the sign up herself, tired of explaining why she speaks differently and as a warning to people about why she doesn’t respond to things customers say when her back is turned.
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I’d like a sign for that some days. I hear well in one ear; not so much in the other. When there’s a lot of ambient noise it can affect the good ear to the point where I can’t understand a thing. Fortunately I don’t work retail anymore, but maybe it would remind my husband not to stand to my right, mutter a question and expect me to know he’s talking to me.
Chevy: “Repeating the top story for our hearing impaired viewers, Target has posted a sign warning customers of a deaf cashier.
Garrett: “OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT….”
This is making a big deal about nothing.
If the employee accepts it or may have even asked for it; why should a customer be offended??? This is not some evil plot discriminating, stigmatizing, whatever against people with severe hearing impairments. It is a visual alert to something that is different.
I think it more than likely makes the employee’s day a lot easier than having to explain every few minutes that he/she is hearing impaired or deaf. Speed up the checkout process. Avoids embarrassing situations for the customer. Etc.
As a customer we’re not accustomed to a deaf person in a retail situation.
We recognize severely visually impaired and blind people pretty easily as they tend to have a guide dog and wear some type of dark or matte glasses. We recognize people that have mobility issues because they are in a wheel chair. The same doesn’t go for deaf people. Unless they use sign language, there is no visual clue that they are deaf.
I say two thumbs up for the employee and Target.
One down for the person complaining about it.
How about if each cashier posted a sign saying which languages they speak (like at our international farmers market).
What is there was a speech/hearing impaired customer who preferred a cashier who understood ASL?
So long as the cashiers have the option to display the sign/tag or not, I’m totally cool with this. A cashier at my local target is hearing impaired and has the sign on her lane. I totally appreciate knowing. Most of all, it gives me the heads up to make sure I have eye contact before speaking and to speak clearly for lip reading purposes. She’s one of the best cashiers at my Target, too. I also imagine that if I were hearing impaired, I’d prefer to check out with someone who understands the impairment and might know ASL or at least be versed in how to deal with it, so I’d probably rather go to that lane.
If they had cashiers who spoke Spanish, I think that’d be a good sign to hang up, too.
Of course living in Utah, a cashier who could best communicate in ASL wouldn’t prevent conversation at all. I can think of several all ASL or combined congregations in the immediate area. Then again with all the returned missionaries, there’s a solid group that speaks Spanish, (Brazilian) Portuguese, and even Quechua. I once worked in a call center where the guy sitting next to me suddenly switched into Polish. So much for getting rid of that telemarketer.
the best way to help people get along with things like deafness floating around is to expunge ignorance. This sign seems to do a pretty good job of that. And Jon is missing a particularly vital possibility- that the employee hung the sign themselves.
It sounds like a reasonable accomodation and the cashier probably suggested it herself.
I think it is appropriate because a level of communication is required for a checkout (if it is not a self-checkout). If there is a problem, I have no problem with the person working in a capacity that doe snot interact with customers.
Enter my local McDonalds problem: We have about 10% of our community is hispanic. For some reason, they keep on hiring people that ONLY speak spanish. I do not speak spanish, so if I attempt to communicate, such as simple like, ‘please repeat my order back to me’ and they can not understand, it is a serious barrier to doing business. I talk to the manager and request that people up front need to at least speak english, if not both languages, and that they had other people that could speak english in the back making burgers…simple solution: put those that can not speak with 90% of your customers in a position that does not interact directly with the customer.
Same situation here…if they are up front, yes, the customer should be informed, otherwise they may have a bad experience shopping without a reasonable expectation of why.
How about we let the cashier decide rather than engage in a mundane and (seemingly) endless debate?
My wife has been a cashier for 7 years now and has 2 signs located near her register. She made them herself, the company she works for has not said anything about the sign. She put the signs up because no one saw the first sign, so she needed a 2nd one, and she put up the first one because people would always try to say something to her when she was ringing them up and not looking at them and they thought she was ignoring them. Most likely this is for the employees benifit, not the shoppers.
I would bet that a ton of complaints about the store stopped as soon as the sign went up. My husband works retail and they are constantly bombarded with the message that they need to improve the feedback that’s on those surveys you find on the receipts. They probably got a lot of messages that the cashier was rude or ignored the customers questions. I’ll bet those complaints practically came to a halt once customers became informed that the cashier is hearing impaired and not rude.
They do that so that the cashier doesn’t get treated like crap by customers who think the cashier is rude or not listening to them.
I approve, as long as the employee is cool with it.
I think it’s up to the cashier.
I was at a Safeway and asked a woman stocking shelves if they carried an item. She said she didn’t know. I thanked her and started walking toward another employee at the other end of the aisle and she shouted, “Oh, he won’t be able to help you.” I thought it was odd, but tried anyway. He was deaf, so I signed my question, he replied, and I got what I was looking for.
Even if I hadn’t known sign language I could have typed the question on my phone if he wasn’t able to understand me. He knew where the item was. I don’t know why she assumed he couldn’t be helpful because he was deaf.
I am appalled by this, maybe if they put she only speaks mexican then it would help her out. That way everyone would speak slower and louder to the correct person. ( /s for you nimrods who get offended for other people)
I’d submit to the cashier’s request but I’d like knowing the cashier was hearing impaired. I’d make more of an effort to look at her/him when I spoke and wouldn’t be offended if he/she didn’t answer my questions.
I can just hear someone complaining, “Target has rude cashiers! I asked him if I gave him enough cash and he said my ASS was just right!”
It should be up to the cashier.. Maybe a little less blunt. But there should be some sort of notice so the customer knows that the cashier isn’t being rude
I spend a lot of time in Baguio, Philippines. In the one big mall there, there is a sign in one of the men’s comfort room (rest room) doors stating that the attendant is deaf (or similar wording). As there is rarely any need to converse with a toilet cleaning attendant, I assumed that the management of the cleaning company was proudly announcing that they give work opportunity to handicapped people. Anyone who knows the Philippines, hey Cat, knows that jobs are extremely scarce even for “normal” people. There are very few nondiscrimination laws there, so this is reason to boast that they hire deaf people.
In the Target example, there is usually reason for some verbal communication, so I think the sign is appropriate. Maybe some customers will realize that shouting at the cashier won’t accomplish anything.
As silly as it sounds it would make me aware i need to look at her/him when i talk. save some misunderstanding later
Deaf people skilled and smart. Most can easily read lips and it’s not that big of deal. Not having the sign and treating them as a normal person is the best thing to be done.
It is usually not embarrassing at all for the person with disability. In this case, the cashier can benefit greatly from the sign.
Many customers enjoy chatting up cashiers as a nice gesture. Or they might want to ask them about something. There could be misunderstandings when the cashier isn’t able to response. And I could imagine that since he or she is deaf, the beeping noise for the scanner is useless. He or she needs to focus on the screen for correct scanning. The lack of eye contact might appear rude if you didn’t know about the disability.
I am hard of hearing and realize that the sign helps the employee.
I’ve no problem with this. Heck, I’ve put up signs myself on my register with the notice that: Cashier has laryngitis and cannot speak loudly or at all. As a customer, having the foreknowledge that I need to speak clearly and make sure that the cashier can see me talking is a nice idea.
I think it should be up to the person. If it were me, I’d probably want the sign so idiot people wouldnt yell at me.
This could also potentially provide information for hearing impaired customers. For instance, those who utilize sign language may find it easier to communicate with a cashier who does as well.
I would much rather have a “hearing impaired” cashier than a deaf one. Or, a deaf and dumb one. All things considered, tho I really prefer a cashier who can understand what I am saying.
It makes sense because there are going to be those that will start to yell at the cashier for not greeting them or hearing what they are asking while they are scanning and bagging.
I actually put “I am hard of hearing” on my name tag. I got tired of asking people to repeat themselves over and over. Apparently, some people think that when you say “what?”, it means repeat what you said in the exact same volume and tone. I have found that since I put that on my nametag, I have to do that much less often, and it is less frustrating for me and my customers (at least until I can get my hearing aids).
Maybe it’s less of a warning than a courtesy to customers who are also hearing-impaired.
I was at a Hyatt hotel a few weeks ago, and I noticed a sign by the elevators that stated that the hotel hired some staff from a nearby school for the deaf. It also stated that some could only communicate using sign language.