Deaf man filed a lawsuit against Wendy's

[Miss-Delectable]

Deaf Man Claims Fast-Food Chain Refused Service
Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Westborough Restaurant

POSTED: 5:41 pm EDT April 30, 2004
UPDATED: 5:55 pm EDT April 30, 2004

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. -- A deaf man filed a federal lawsuit against Wendy's Friday after he was allegedly refused service at the fast-food restaurant's drive-through in Westborough, Mass.


Janet Wu Reports On Lawsuit

NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu reported that Howard Kaplan said that it was three years ago when the manager allegedly threatened to call police after he tried to talk to the employee using sign language.

Kaplan said that he passed the microphone area and proceeded the second window because he found no one at the first window. He indicated to the cashier that he needed a paper and pencil to write down his order. She took the paper, punched his order in and then called the manager over to the window.

"It was at this point that the manager told him that he needed to go back around to the microphone again. This is when the altercation ensued. She yelled at him. He didn't understand what she was saying. He tried to tell her he wanted his food, but she refused. She continued to yell at him," Kaplan's attorney Rebecca Pontikes said.

"The manager did not yell at him, and in fact, it was just the opposite. I talked to all the employees on duty at that time myself," co-owner William Zanke said in a telephone interview.

"Calling it a miscommunication sidesteps the entire issue. There is a problem here because a deaf person could not use the Wendy's drive-through in the same way that a hearing person can," Pontikes said.

Zanke said that the restaurant serves deaf customers on a regular basis, and that this was the only incident of its type.

 

[Cheri]

I do not believe this....how can the Owner takes sides of the Worker when he was not even there to seen the problem himself. Of course they will do anything to make up a story to avoid a lawsuit.




In Facts that there are some Drive Thu Discriminated the deaf by not taking their orders and treat them the same way as hearing People..


They need to come up with a training program to train their employees and Managers of how to take orders from a Hard of Hearing Customers...Or come up with another plan speaker box seems to be discriminated for the deaf. I like those speaker box that has Letterings that shows that your order is Correct and Knowing they are Hearing ur Orders.

 

[Angel]

I wouldn't be surpise if the owner did lie to cover himself from a serious lawsuit.... :roll:

This is not the first time I've heard of a fast food resturant giving a deaf customer a hard time at the drive-thru window!....

 

[javapride]

today i was ordering food for my partner and they had an attidute i told them first hand i was hard of hearing and ot please speak slowly and i spoke my orders clearly and they kept adding on the orders constantly and i just said either u get yr orders right or im filing an complaint against you for yr attidute, she quickly changed her attidute and got the orders right and then i got my food and then stepped inside the resturant told the manager to yank her off the window duty and put her in the back til her attidute changes abt respecting other poeple! she did and i had to come back an hr later as we needed more drinks so i came in the manager saw me and told me free food i was like no thank u i don t want to be treated as a speical person i came in to make my order like any other customer, all i want is respect and decorum towards the customers thats pretty much it so she accepted that and we moved on now the lady got a write up as the manager told me and i informed the manager someone put onions on my food and to please read careful! she understood cuz i spoke nicely but firmly .

 

[Levonian]

This is not the first time I've heard of a fast food resturant giving a deaf customer a hard time at the drive-thru window!....

Of course it’s not the first time you’ve heard of this happening. It happened to your own sister about a month ago. And I’m damn proud of her for putting her foot up somebody’s ass instead of just going and finding someplace else to eat.

How many of you know who Terrylene Sacchetti is? She’s a lesser known Deaf actress who mostly does local theater here in Los Angeles, but she’s appeared in a few TV shows and movies. In 1990 she successfully sued the Burger King Corporation for their refusal to serve her at one their franchises. As part of the settlement, Burger King had to agree to make changes to their internal policies regarding deaf customers using the drive-thru windows. If just a few more Deaf people would step up to the plate and demand equal access or else, maybe the day will come when all fast food chains will be forced to install touchpad ordering at the drive-thru. Not only would that make things a hell of a lot easier for d/Deaf people, it would make things a lot faster and easier for everybody.

 

[DeafSCUBA98]

geez what a snob fast-food service they all are :rolls:

I heard in Arizona they have drive thru for deaf people to push buttons what they want.. wish they have those all over America..

 

[VamPyroX]

Well, let's not jump to conclusions. Maybe, the deaf guy is lying. It could be anything. I've seen deaf people here in Rochester give employees a hard time. They will drive up to the window and then start yelling just because that employee didn't have a paper and pen ready at the time they arrived to the window. How was that employee supposed to know it was going to be needed at that moment? I've seen deaf people in line signing to each other. When one arrives to the front, the employee will offer him paper and pen to take his order. He'll then scold that employee for degrading him and thinking that he's "deaf & mute" since he is oral and can speak for himself. There are a lot of deaf people out there who just don't appreciate what others struggle to keep up with. Nothing is 100% deaf-ready. Things are still being worked on. Look at this:

Zanke said that the restaurant serves deaf customers on a regular basis, and that this was the only incident of its type.

Hmm... what if this was true? What if the deaf guy is bullshitting us? It could be anything.

 

[tekkmortal]

Another solution would be having every fast food restaurant to have at least one employee that can communicate with deaf customer with sign language. :|

 

[Angel]

geez what a snob fast-food service they all are :rolls:

I heard in Arizona they have drive thru for deaf people to push buttons what they want.. wish they have those all over America..

Really?...I'm curious what does it look like?.....and did they have a speaker box at first then changed it to something like where you can push buttons to order what they want?...

 

[WBHarley]

geez what a snob fast-food service they all are :rolls:

I heard in Arizona they have drive thru for deaf people to push buttons what they want.. wish they have those all over America..

If that's true, I would be glad it could come allover america as it would be easier for almost every person that includes foregins language people since they can see pictures of items they want like #1, #2 so forth you know..

My husband was saying this after I told him what had happen to westborough, I don't believe in this way sorry to offend to some people but If they want their orders done thru drivethur, get paper and pen ready or whatever.. Unless it was after hours that is different story.. I sometime ask daughter to make sure they got correct order when I speak thru or she speak thru for me I don't believe in leaving kids alone in vehicle when I go in or drag all kids in when you have to go somewhere quick. or get out of traffic such as in cities! cities is terrible even in country laidback area still you can't leave them alone but sometime you got no choice to go in.. However we need to know more about this story in westborough..

Drive-thru.. husband said they should set it up monitor with sign language to get orders done! I like his idea.. He's a neato man!! Also another idea as what DeafSCUBA said about press button for ordering items I like that idea too its Neato!


Wendy

 

[VamPyroX]

If that's true, I would be glad it could come allover america as it would be easier for almost every person that includes foregins language people since they can see pictures of items they want like #1, #2 so forth you know..

My husband was saying this after I told him what had happen to westborough, I don't believe in this way sorry to offend to some people but If they want their orders done thru drivethur, get paper and pen ready or whatever.. Unless it was after hours that is different story.. I sometime ask daughter to make sure they got correct order when I speak thru or she speak thru for me I don't believe in leaving kids alone in vehicle when I go in or drag all kids in when you have to go somewhere quick. or get out of traffic such as in cities! cities is terrible even in country laidback area still you can't leave them alone but sometime you got no choice to go in.. However we need to know more about this story in westborough..

Drive-thru.. husband said they should set it up monitor with sign language to get orders done! I like his idea.. He's a neato man!! Also another idea as what DeafSCUBA said about press button for ordering items I like that idea too its Neato!


Wendy

Actually, there are a lot of fast food restaurants that have picture menus for those people. McDonalds did that to my friends before. They handed my friends a picture menu and they simply pointed at what they want.

 

[Steel X]

I NEVER go through the drive thru thingy anyway...I always have to go inside and take the order by face-to-face so I could read their lips and stuff, making sure that they understand me and that I understand them and they would always ask me, "in here or on the go"? so I usually take it on the go and they put it in the bag and there I go outta the door and to my truck lol

 

[CatoCooper13]

Of course it’s not the first time you’ve heard of this happening. It happened to your own sister about a month ago. And I’m damn proud of her for putting her foot up somebody’s ass instead of just going and finding someplace else to eat.

How many of you know who Terrylene Sacchetti is? She’s a lesser known Deaf actress who mostly does local theater here in Los Angeles, but she’s appeared in a few TV shows and movies. In 1990 she successfully sued the Burger King Corporation for their refusal to serve her at one their franchises. As part of the settlement, Burger King had to agree to make changes to their internal policies regarding deaf customers using the drive-thru windows. If just a few more Deaf people would step up to the plate and demand equal access or else, maybe the day will come when all fast food chains will be forced to install touchpad ordering at the drive-thru. Not only would that make things a hell of a lot easier for d/Deaf people, it would make things a lot faster and easier for everybody.

Yes, I know Terrylene personally -- she doesn't use her surname though..only goes by her first name, that's it.

I did hear about her successful case against Burger King.

I personally have never had any problems with ordering food through the drive through.

 

[WBHarley]

Actually, there are a lot of fast food restaurants that have picture menus for those people. McDonalds did that to my friends before. They handed my friends a picture menu and they simply pointed at what they want.

at drive thru board would be good idea to press button next to pix you know that's what I was talking about... I think deafSCUBA was saying He heard there's button press in arizona ?? why not for it to go every place in America ?

 

[VamPyroX]

at drive thru board would be good idea to press button next to pix you know that's what I was talking about... I think deafSCUBA was saying He heard there's button press in arizona ?? why not for it to go every place in America ?

I find that hard to believe. There are over 50 menu options on the huge display. If there were actually 50 buttons on that huge display, I'd guess that these people had to get out of the car in order to be able to press some of them. Can you verify that this actually happened? I would like to see a picture or an article that explains how this is done.

 

[Tousi]

I can't provide the proof but I know that some of these fast food franchises have test marketed(not nation-wide..just regionally)touch-pads or something similar for deaf and HoH people to order food.......

 

[Levonian]

Some of the chains in my area are sort of halfway there. They don’t have touchpads, but a lot of them have big LED screens above the speaker box which shows what the cashier is entering. Which is great, because even hearing people can’t understand half the gibberish that comes out of those boxes.

Pizza Hut really had a stroke of genius when they started accepting orders online. It was even smarter that they set it up so that your address and credit card number could be stored in a cookie. All you have to do is place the order, verify the address with a check box, and click send. Even though I don’t have any problems using the phone, they still get all my pizza business just because it’s so hassle free.

 

[Liza]

Wendy, I agree with you that they should have those touch screens with options and menu at the drive thrus everywhere. Maybe if enough people make a demand for that...? After all, the customer is always right!

It definitely can be hard to tell who is telling the truth and who is not telling the truth. Not totally foolproof. Once again, there's the default philosophy in such businesses: the customer is always right. lol the avenue of technology will definitely make things more convenient for everyone, so why don't the businesses just take advantage of that?

 

[GalaxyAngel]

Not you only ones.. Includes so many Deaf peepz who really quite fusterate with Drive Thru who discrimation against you...
Even includes: McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, much more same thing.. :roll: Oh plluuaazzah , there have to stop and to try educate them resturant if not work.. try "upstairs" (means talk out with ADA in your states, or get lawyer and to re-arrange for court lawsuit wha..ever you name it).. Espically in Canada quite "Weak Teeth".

 

[Kalista]

Today I had a yard sale. The deaf people were talking about this person, Howard Kaplan for years. He has historical problem which he loves to lawsuit against other many places. He has a bitter in his life. No friends, no girlfriends and no life... That is what, they talked about Howard Kaplan alot today. He tried to lawsuit against other place but his case was lost last December 2003. He tried to get another lawsuit that place Wendy.

He wants the money !! $$$$$