星巴克開了一家手語店，聘用了聽障咖啡師

聲明：本文系原創翻譯

未經授權不得轉載

Starbucks opens first U.S. sign Language store — with murals, tech pads and fingerspelling

星巴克開了第一家美國手語店——有壁畫、高科技的平板電腦和手語

The storefronts along Washington’s bustling H Street Northeast are lit up with familiar names and logos: Petco. Whole Foods. CVS.

位於繁華的華盛頓H街（東北）的這些店面都有相似的店名和標誌：Petco. Whole Foods. CVS。

There is also a Starbucks. Or, more specifically, S-T-A-R-B-U-C-K-S spelled out in the hand symbols of American Sign Language.

還有一個單詞“Starbucks”，更確切地說是“S-T-A-R-B-U-C-K-S”，是用美國手語中手勢符號拼出來的。

That fingerspelling is one way to spot the coffee giant’s first U.S. signing store, where 24 deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing employees run the shop using ASL. 

這個手勢語也突顯了這家咖啡巨頭第一家美國手語店的特點，店內由24名使用美國手語的耳聾、有聽力障礙和聽力正常的員工經營。

“My identity is accepted here,” said Crystal Harris, a barista at the signing store. “Deafness has many faces.”

手語店裏的咖啡師Crystal Harris說：“我在這裏得到了認可，耳聾也有很多事情可做。”

The store is just blocks from Gallaudet University, a 150-year-old institution and the world’s only university designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. 

這家店距離高立德大學只有幾條街區遠，這所擁有150年曆史的大學是世界唯一一所爲耳聾和弱聽學生設計的大學。

The shop mirrors Starbucks’s first signing store, which opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2016. 

這家店仿照了星巴克2016年第一家開在馬來西亞吉隆坡的手語店。

Customers from the outside can spot “Starbucks” written out in fingerspelling beneath the main logo and on large table umbrellas. 

顧客從外面可以看見主標誌下面和大桌傘上用手勢語拼出的單詞“Starbucks”。

And on the inside, what may appear like any other Starbucks cafe has been specifically laid out and decorated to celebrate deaf culture.

店內就和其他星巴克咖啡店一樣，餐具擺放和裝飾都體現了耳聾人士的文化。

The store employs 24 workers who are all conversant in American Sign Language. (Joshua Trujillo/Starbucks)

店內僱傭了24位精通美國手語的員工。（Joshua Trujillo/星巴克）

Customers can communicate in ASL or write their orders on a tech pad. Rather than wait to hear their names called at the end of the bar, customers look up to a screen showing when their drinks are ready. 

顧客可以用美國手語交流或者在高科技的平板上寫下自己要點的餐品，顧客不會等着吧檯叫自己的名字，而是擡頭看屏幕，可以取餐時屏幕會顯示。

The store was also remodeled to maximize light and open lines of sight — high top tables or tall stacks of cups, for example, limit visibility for people signing to each other. 

店裏也重做裝修以使光線充足視野開闊，比如高桌子或堆得很高的杯子都會阻礙人們看到彼此的手語。

Non-signing customers are also encouraged to use visual cues. Rather than sign that the store didn’t carry chamomile tea, for example, one employee waved his hand across his neck — signaling “no” — and then pointed to a printed menu with other options.

不使用手語的顧客也被鼓勵使用可視提示。比如店裏沒有標示不提供甘菊茶，員工可以在脖子上揮手來表示“沒有”，然後再在打印的菜單上指出其他選擇。

Store manager Matthew Gilsbach moved from California’s Bay Area to run the signing location. 

咖啡店經理Matthew Gilsbach是從加州灣區調來管理這家手語店的。

At one point in his three and a half years at the company, Gilsbach said he was stunned to meet a deaf Starbucks district manager.

Gilsbach說在這家公司工作三年半左右時很驚訝地遇到了一位耳聾的星巴克區域經理。

“I thought, wait, there’s a deaf district manager?” Gilsbach said. “What’s going on?"

Gilsbach說：“我當時想‘等等，還會有耳聾的區域經理？怎麼回事？’”

Any disbelief that a deaf person could take on a management or executive role is precisely the kind of stigma Starbucks and deaf community advocates aim to combat. 

不相信耳聾人士能承擔起管理或執行的角色恰好是星巴克和爲耳聾羣體辯護的人一致要改變的誤解。

Howard Rosenblum, chief executive of the National Association of the Deaf, said that companies may hire deaf employees at lower levels, but those opportunities rarely extend up the chain.

全美聾啞人協會會長Howard Rosenblum說公司可能會以更低的標準僱傭耳聾員工，但很少提供向上發展的機會。

Some companies show signs of progress: Microsoft’s chief accessibility officer, Jenny Lay-Flurrie, is deaf and has fought to expand accessibility for employees with disabilities. 

一些公司有了明顯改善：微軟首席輔助官Jenny Lay-Flurrie耳聾，一直努力爲殘障員工拓展工作機會。

Still, the deaf community’s rate of unemployment and underemployment sits at a staggering 70 percent, Rosenblum said.

Rosenblum說：“但耳聾羣體的失業率和未充分就業率竟然達到了70%。”

“The manager is always a hearing person because there’s a perception of limited ability with deaf people,” Rosenblum said.

Rosenblum說：“經理都是聽力正常的人，因爲普遍認爲耳聾人士能力有限。”

Not so at the H Street Starbucks. 

但在H街的星巴克情況並非如此。

Employee Kylie Garcia had just been promoted from a barista to a shift supervisor. 

員工Kylie Garcia就是從咖啡師做到了領班。

Garcia grew up as the only deaf individual in a non-signing, hearing family, and she knows firsthand how difficult it is for deaf people to find jobs. 

Garcia在一個不使用手語、聽力正常的家庭長大，是家裏唯一耳聾的人，她對耳聾人士找工作的難度深有體會。

Garcia previously worked in a Starbucks kiosk at a Target store where her sole job was to make drinks — never interacting with customers and often being shut out of conversations with other baristas.

Garcia此前在一家塔吉特（美國百貨公司）的星巴克飲品站工作，她唯一的工作就是製作飲品，從未與顧客交流過，其他咖啡師也不願意和她聊天。

“People turned down offering me jobs because they aren’t willing to take the risk,” Garcia said.

Garcia說：“人們不給我工作因爲他們不願意冒險。”

Pamela Pipes, a hearing barista who is also a sign language interpreter, moved from Raleigh, N.C., to work at the D.C. signing store. 

Pamela Pipes是一位聽力正常的咖啡師，也是一位手語翻譯，從北卡羅來納州的羅利被調來華盛頓特區的手語店工作。

Here, “the tables have turned,” Pipes said, in that hearing customers are going to have to figure out how to navigate and communicate in deaf spaces.

Pipes說：“在這兒情況恰恰相反，”在這家店裏聽力正常的顧客要弄明白怎麼在一個都是耳聾人士的店裏溝通交流。

（翻譯：菲菲）