>From the Washington Post

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.

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