What a story!!! A few short years ago when I owned and operated a store I had many
deaf customers due to the fact that there is a large deaf school a mile away. I bent
over backwards for them if for no other reason that they were customers and I wanted
their money. My wife now works for USA Relay handling TTY calls and deals with this
kind of ignorance every day. People do not have the patience or understanding to
take an extra few moments out of their lives to listen even if it means money in
their pockets. I'm glad I took the time to listen because I met some truly wonderful
people and great return business.

Jill Jacobs wrote:

> >12/12/98 -- Copyright (C) 1998 The Washington Post [Article 329232, 82 lines]
> >
> >                          A Call Against Radio Shack
> >                  Deaf Man Urges Boycott After Bad Experience
> >                                By Tom Jackman
> >                         Washington Post Staff Writer
> >
> > Almost totally deaf from birth, Michael Gannon was accustomed to
> >communication troubles with clerks and cashiers when he went shopping. Still,
> >nothing prepared him for the incident at the Radio Shack store near Tysons
> >Corner.
> >     Gannon, who reads lips and speaks almost flawlessly, entered the store to
> >buy batteries for his hearing aid. A misunderstanding, which began when Gannon
> >was asked for his phone number and Zip code, escalated when the clerk didn't
> >realize that Gannon couldn't hear him. Without warning, Gannon says, the clerk
> >punched him in the face, tackled him and sent him crashing into a glass
> >display case.
> >     The incident left Gannon with gashes, bruises and internal injuries.
> >Radio Shack fired the clerk, who later was convicted of assault. But when
> >Gannon asked the company for an apology and help with his medical bills, which
> >he said total more than $10,000, Radio Shack refused.
> >     Gannon filed a $1 million lawsuit last year against Radio Shack's parent
> >company, Tandy Corp. Now, he and his attorneys are trying to stir up support
> >for a boycott of Radio Shack stores, saying that even though the company sells
> >products for the deaf, it does not train employees to deal with deaf customers.
> >     The attack was emblematic of the problems faced by deaf people in
> >everyday situations, Gannon said. "It's not just a misunderstanding between a
> >deaf person and a clerk," he said.
> >    Tandy officials declined to speak about Gannon's lawsuit or the company's
> >service toward deaf customers. In court filings, Tandy denies liability in
> >Gannon's claims of assault and battery and negligence.
> >     The company's local lawyer, Ralph N. Boccarosse Jr., of Fairfax, said he
> >is sympathetic to the obstacles deaf people face in stores. "It may very well
> >be a realistic problem," he said. But Tandy does not train its employees to
> >handle deaf customers, and "I don't know that there is anyone in the retail
> >industry that does," Boccarosse said.
> >     Gannon, a 39-year-old physical trainer from Reston, said the trouble
> >began shortly after he entered the Radio Shack store on Leesburg Pike on a
> >Friday night in August 1995. His brother and a friend waited in the car
> >outside. Gannon grabbed the batteries, then placed them on the counter with a
> >credit card.
> >     He said the clerk, Donald M. Boseman, 43, asked him for his telephone
> >number and Zip code, but Gannon refused because he had given it to the store
> >before and was in a rush. Then Boseman questioned Gannon's signature. Gannon
> >said he grew impatient and snatched the receipt back from Boseman. The clerk
> >then turned his face away, and Gannon could see that he was muttering but
> >couldn't tell what he was saying or asking. Finally, Boseman held out the bag
> >of batteries, Gannon reached for it, and "before I knew it, I got punched in
> >the face."
> >     Gannon said that he was dazed from the assault and that when he asked
> >what had happened, Boseman stormed around the counter and drove him into a
> >glass display case. Boseman testified in Fairfax County Circuit Court that he
> >had arthritis and that it was painful when Gannon snatched the receipt from
> >his hand. Boseman testified that when Gannon reached for the bag, "I felt
> >threatened. I didn't know whether he was going to rob the store or whatever
> >and I just tried to protect myself."
> >     Boseman could not be reached  for comment and his attorney did not return
> >telephone calls. A store employee testified that Boseman attacked Gannon
> >without provocation. The judge found Boseman guilty of assault and sentenced
> >him to 45 days in jail. Boseman appealed, was again found guilty, and was
> >sentenced to 10 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
> >      Gannon said he is a reluctant crusader. "I'm not thinking about being
> >the next Ralph Nader," he said in an interview. He said, however, that he had
> >never visited a store that showed sensitivity to deaf customers, although
> >about 10 percent of the population is deaf or hard of hearing.
> >     Advocates for the deaf say most nonhearing people have stories of
> >shopping tribulations, from humorous to horrible. Phoebe Hamill, president of
> >the Potomac chapter of the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, recalled
> >buying do-it-yourself plumbing tools, then returning to the store to ask for
> >help.
> >     "The people remembered me as a problem and were reluctant to wait on me,
> >knowing I had further questions," Hamill said. "I dashed out of the store and
> >broke into tears and decided plumbing repairs were not for me. I'm white but I
> >thought that this is how black people probably used to feel."
> >     Cheryl Heppner, executive director of the Northern Virginia Resource
> >Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, said that such situations are "a
> >big blow to your self-respect, the fact that you can't communicate with
> >somebody." She added, "If people go through that experience often enough, they
> >get so they don't want to go outside the house."
> >  Accommodating deaf customers is easy, Heppner said. Clerks need only face
> >the customer, so their lips can be read, or have a pad of paper and pen ready
> >for the customer to use. Heppner said she has offered her services to the
> >Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce to help train employees, but has had no
> >takers.
> >
> >----------
> >End of Document
> >
> >