Treatment of Deaf Couple at Wendy’s Drive Thru

Deaf News: Treatment of Deaf couple at Wendy's sparks outrage in Texas.



AUSTIN, TX -- TWC News: A local Deaf couple recently visited the Wendy's at 305 West Slaughter Lane in South Austin for food. They handed a note to the employee with their order at the window. But instead of immediately getting the fries and burgers they requested, they got a handwritten message.



They say an employee handed it to them after the fast food restaurant didn't get their order right.



The couple feels they were mistreated while trying to use the drive-thru.



Elisa Vita said the message left a bad taste in her mouth.



"They gave me the note and I felt very upset about that. I felt like they looked at me as less than other people, as inferior to other people and it was really not a good feeling,” said Vita.



Vita posted an image of the message on Facebook.



"It really hit a nerve with people," said Vita.



Thousands have weighed in online sharing similar experiences at fast food restaurants nationwide. Vita said she spoke with the manager of the South Austin Wendy's who gave her some free meal coupons and was incredibly apologetic about the situation.



She doesn't feel like enough was done to make it right.



"I deserve the right to the same service and obviously Wendy's needs to provide more in-depth training that explicitly says everyone deserves to access the drive-thru," said Vita.



A University of Texas professor said fast food worker or not, it's best to just follow a Deaf person's lead when they're trying to communicate with you.



"They [Deaf People] are skilled at working with and interacting with people with whom they don't share a common language. Try not to become frustrated if you're the clerk," said Richard Meier, the Department of Linguistics chair at UT.



Accessibility issues for the Deaf expand far beyond the drive-thru. Faculty within UT's ASL Program are beginning to research them further.



"One problem is there may not be interpreters readily available or the interpreter may be available through a video link," said Meier. "So our question is, how well is this working?"



Meier and his colleagues plan on specifically looking at healthcare first. With such a large Deaf community based in Austin, many believe it's the perfect place to conduct such research. Many say there can never be too much emphasis placed on improving accessibility as it benefits everyone, not just the Deaf.



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Deaf Boy’s Service Dog Killed in Hit and Run

VIDEO: Deaf News - Anchorage family wants justice after 12-year-old Deaf boy’s service dog killed in hit and run.



ANCHORAGE, AK -- KTVA News: A broken red collar is a reminder that there’s something missing at Valerie Anderson’s East Anchorage home.



It’s the collar that belonged to Scooby Doo, the family’s labrador retriever, who was 12-year-old J.J. Anderson’s best friend.



J.J has special needs and wears cochlear implants to hear. The family got Scooby to be a companion for J.J just in case something went wrong.

“When Scooby was 6 months old, he detected a seizure for my son and brought him out of it really quick,” said Anderson.



The pair had a daily routine, a walk through their neighborhood and over to Boniface Parkway, then a quick stop at Anderson’s job at Alaska Pretrial Services, before heading back home.



But on their last walk down Bonficace Parkway Thursday morning, Scooby was hit and killed near 22nd Street by a driver in a black truck. Instead of stopping, the Anchorage Police Departmnet says the driver sped off.



Cindy Jicinsky was one of the drivers who, seeing Scooby in the road and J.J crying on the sidewalk, stopped to help.



“He was obviously very distraught,” said Jicinsky. “The dog may have run into the road but still, if you hit somebody’s animal, you definitely should stop and take ownership of that.”



APD officers and two gentlemen helped J.J. get to Anderson’s office where they broke the news.



“It’s unacceptable,” said Anderson. “You just don’t leave a child like that, you know? I was bewildered by it.”



Those sentiments were shared by her boss, Dennis Johnson, who put his feelings into a Facebook post, directed toward the driver who fled: “Thank God the leash broke when you sped up to flee. He will heal from his physical wounds but probably not the emotional ones!!!!”



“I was just so mad,” said Johnson of how he felt Thursday night. “It was a rant, that’s all it was.”



His rant sparked kindness from the community, in the form of words and donations, including “an envelope of 5s and 10s and 20s” that the Alaska Pretrial Services office received.



Anderson says, judging by the overwhelming support from the community, it’s clear that Scooby was more than just J.J.’s dog.



“Scooby was loved by everybody,” she said. “A lot of people know who Scooby was, they know who J.J. is and it’s been an outpouring of love since it happened. And I can’t thank people enough for it.”



She says even though she and J.J. can’t get Scooby back, they know they’re not alone in the healing process.



APD says its looking for a black truck in this hit-and-run case. If caught, the driver will receive a citation and have to pay a $500 fine.



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Deaf Woman Refused Service At Dunkin Donuts

VIDEO [CC] - Deaf News: Massachusettsians show support after Deaf woman is refused service at Dunkin Donuts drive-thru.



FRAMINGHAM, MA -- A Deaf woman who was outraged by the way a Dunkin Donuts employee treated her is getting support from her community.



Jessica Sanzillo said she's a frequent customer at a Framingham Dunkin Donuts and uses a texting app to order through the drive-thru.



But when she drove up one day, she was refused service because she wouldn't use the speaker. On Sunday, Sanzillo and several others went through that drive-thru and ordered like a Deaf person would.



They hope this sends a message to others.

To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.

"To see, to get them the experience of people that work at Dunkin Donuts. To know what it's like for when a Deaf person is going to come through the drive-thru and how to approach that better in the future,” Sanzillo told FOX25 through an interpreter Friday.



Hearing people and other who have Deaf families members came out to the rally as well.



"As a parent of a Deaf child, I would never want William to be excluded from anything and so thinking of him wanting to get a cup of coffee later in life and being told he couldn't go through the drive thru like everybody else really upset me,” one parent said.



Dunkin Donuts did apologize for that initial incident and said the employee involved has been fired.



SOURCE



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University Killing Deaf Kittens For CI Research

VIDEO: Deaf News - Students outraged after Australian university made six kittens Deaf for a year before killing them for cochlear implant research.



VICTORIA, AU -- Daily Mail: Australian universities are under fire for using cruel animal testing practices as part of various medical and scientific studies.



But one Deakin University student is calling on the prestigious institutions to end their cruel practices.



Alexandra Sedgwick, 24, has kickstarted a campaign against her own university after she suspected Deakin to be using fetal pigs cut from the bodies of pregnant mothers in scientific studies.



Ms Sedgwick organised a meeting on Friday morning with the Dean of the faculty of science, engineering and built environment, to put her case against the university's current animal testing policy.

But the vegan activist said her message was difficult to get across as she was refused any support in the meeting.



'It was an intense experience. I had requested to bring in people as support which the Dean didn't allow,' Ms Sedgwick told Daily Mail Australia.



Ms Sedgwick said the university branded her view as 'unique' and unsupported as she was not allowed to bring in her support team.



Other Australian universities also use cruel animal testing practices for scientific and educational purposes.



The University of Melbourne made six kittens Deaf before killing them as part of a medical study with the Bionics Institute while Monash University made eight healthy baby monkeys brain dead as part of a brain injury study, Fairfax Media reported.



Despite Ms Sedgwick's efforts, the Dean stood by his position that animal tissue was more effective in scientific studies than non-animal alternatives, and insisted they had already adopted a cruelty-free stance.



'If they were a cruelty-free university, why wouldn't they agree to stop using animals? It doesn't make sense to say we have all these animals but then say we're not going agreeing to stop,' Ms Sedgwick said.



'For me this was never about Deakin, it was about Victorian universities and institutions and I had hoped Deakin would be the first to change,' she said.



She acknowledged the difficulty of being up against a big organisation with extensive resources but hopes to further expose animal cruelty in science through her social media accounts and by connecting with like-minded people.



'I've had hundreds of people contact me and hopefully they will be willing to tell their stories.



'I hope to connect with Victorians, students, researchers and interns who are brave enough to tell the truth about this, as universities are all quite secretive especially in the research department,' she said.



Over 900,000 animals are killed for scientific purposes in Victoria alone, which has been increasing every year for the past 10 years according to the most recent data from 2014.



Ms Sedgwick said this does not include animal organs purchased from slaughterhouses.



While she described the mood as 'devastating', Ms Sedgwick said she will not stop pursuing the issue and urges all students not to participate in dissection.



Trevor Day, Deakin's executive dean of the faculty of science, engineering and built environment, told Fairfax Media that there was 'very limited use of live animals in teaching and training.'



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