The thought has probably occurred to every unhappy deaf worker. "I've had enough. I'm done with working for other people. It's time to start my own business!"

For anyone who is serious about doing it, the first question becomes - what business? It's not enough to have good skills. Sometimes putting your skills to work first requires getting business, which means marketing your products or services, which means communicating with hearing customers.

Now you have a big problem. While you, as a deaf or hard of hearing businessperson, are struggling to reach hearing customers, your hearing competition doesn't have that hassle. When hearing customers call, they simply pick up the phone. For deaf and hard of hearing businesspeople, it's not so easy.

But suppose you're in a business where your customers come to you? A business where your presence on the street advertises your services? A business where communication workarounds are not only effective, but actually accepted and enjoyed by your customers?

Welcome to the restaurant business.

It's not an easy path to take. Running a restaurant is intense and demanding, frequently filled with 12 hour days and no days off. Employee turnover is often high, so training is constant. Customers can be fickle and you're at the mercy of local health inspectors and tax rates. Arlyn Meyerson, a deaf restaurant manager with 55 years of experience in the business, cautions that anyone contemplating a restaurant business should be "...thoroughly experienced in the food business and thoroughly dedicated to it. The restaurant business is one of the toughest to run..."

But if you want to work for yourself, it's a proven formula for success. How so? Consider The Garden Cafe. It was established in 1984 as a small bamboo snack shack on Bohol Island in the Philippines. In 26 years, it has grown to become one of the capital city's finest restaurants, seating 170. Now it serves steaks, wraps and chili - and employs 36 deaf workers.

Then there's the Cafe Signes, a Left Bank restaurant in Paris. Most of the 45 workers there are deaf. The menu lists the whole of the French signing alphabet, and the customers seem to actually prefer trying to fingerspell their orders instead of pointing at menu items. There are three deaf sous-chefs; the waiters carry vibrating beepers. When a meal is ready to be served, the cook hits a button on a panel above his stove and a waiter's beeper goes off.

There are others. In Hue, Vietnam, the Lac Thien Restaurant is run by the deaf waiters. They reportedly have a lively bar in the basement!

Two brothers, one deaf and one hearing, opened a Japanese sushi restaurant in California - the Oishi Sushi.

This week a new restaurant created specifically to serve deaf customers opens in Rome. Located on the via Oderisi da Gubbio in the Marconi neighborhood, it is equipped with a TTY, a Net-connected PC, and films with subtitles will be shown. Waiters will take orders in Italian sign language.

Successful deaf-owned and operated restaurants are scattered around the world. No one says doing it is easy. But for those with the determination, the drive, the energy and ambition, it's happening, right now.

Additional links:

Garden Cafe
Video:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/video/player.php?video=20050203gardencaf e&speed=hi
Photos:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/03/0 3/build//local/24-ppines-cafe_v_large.inc

Cafe Signes
http://www.entraideuniversitaire.asso.fr/cafe/restaurant.php
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0702/p07s02-woeu.html

© Copyrighted material, used by permission. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the express written consent of the author. Author's views not necessarily those of i711.com.

View Comments  |  Add Comment  |   Email this Article