Deaf Woman Sues Taco Bell Over Drive-Thru

VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Deaf New Jersey woman sues Taco Bell over drive-thru orders.



TRENTON, NJ -- A Deaf Atlantic City woman who primarily communicates in sign language is suing Taco Bell, saying she found it difficult, if not impossible, to order two tacos at the fast-food chain's drive-thru window.



Gina Cirrincione said in her federal lawsuit that on Jan. 11, she wrote her order on a slip of paper and handed it to an employee at the drive-thru pickup window at a Taco Bell in Pleasantville, New Jersey.



Her video of the exchange, provided to The Associated Press by her lawyer, showed an employee trying to explain that orders are placed at the start of the drive-thru.

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"I will do it this one time," he then said. "I want you to understand me, one time. After that, no more. After that, no more. Come inside. OK, is that fair?"



On March 15, Cirrincione said, she wrote her order on a slip of paper and handed it to a drive-thru employee at a Taco Bell in Atlantic City. The note was returned and the window was shut without the order or an explanation, she said. She said she entered the store and was ignored.



Also see more: Taco Bell Complains About Deaf Customers



Taco Bell's drive-thru system requires a customer to hear and speak, making it inaccessible to the Deaf in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, the lawsuit claims.



Taco Bell spokeswoman Laura Nedbal said in a statement Friday to the AP that the California-based company had not yet received the lawsuit so could not comment on it. However, she added, "Taco Bell has a fundamental policy to respect all of our customers and employees, and we are committed to maintaining an environment free of discrimination or harassment."



Cirrincione wants Taco Bell to develop a policy to consider the needs of Deaf customers and to train employees about their rights. She also is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.



"With today's technology and the sophistication of Taco Bell, there is no excuse that their drive-thrus cannot be accessible," said attorney Eric Baum of The Eisenberg & Baum Law Center For The Deaf and Hard of Hearing, who is representing Cirrincione.



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Brainstem Implants Help Deaf Children Hear

VIDEO: Deaf children who can't use the older technology of cochlear implants might be helped with a brainstem implant.



LOS ANGELES - At age 3, Angelica Lopez is helping to break a sound barrier for Deaf children.



Born without working auditory nerves, she can detect sounds for the first time and start to mimic them after undergoing brain surgery to implant a device that bypasses missing wiring in her inner ears.



Angelica is one of a small number of U.S. children who are testing what's called an auditory brainstem implant, or ABI. The device goes beyond cochlear implants that have brought hearing to many Deaf children but that don't work for tots who lack their hearing nerve.



When the ABI is first turned on, "she isn't going to be hearing like a 3-year-old. She'll be hearing like a newborn," audiologist Laurie Eisenberg of the University of Southern California tells parents. She outlined the research Friday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.



The children don't magically understand and use those sounds. "It's going to take a lot of work," Eisenberg cautioned.

Angelica cried when her ABI first was switched on, scared by the sounds. But five months later, her mother says the youngster uses sign language to identify some sounds that was a cough, that's a dog barking. And she's beginning to babble like hearing babies do, as therapists work to teach her oral speech.



"It's just so awesome to hear her little voice," said Julie Lopez of Big Spring, Texas, who enrolled her daughter in the study at USC, where researchers say she's progressing well.



Many children born Deaf benefit from cochlear implants, electrodes that send impulses to the auditory nerve, where they're relayed to the brain and recognized as sound. But the small fraction born without a working hearing nerve can't make that brain connection.



The ABI attempts to fill that gap by delivering electrical stimulation directly to the neurons on the brainstem the nerve normally would have targeted. Here's how it works: The person wears a microphone on the ear to detect sound, and a processer changes it to electrical signals. Those are beamed to a stimulator under the skin, which sends the signals snaking through a wire to electrodes surgically placed on the brainstem... Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/15/hearing-device.html



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