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Employees take an order at Starbucks' first US signature store in Dc (Joshua Trujillo / Starbucks)
The shops along Washington's busy street, H Street Northeast, are illuminated by names and well-known logos: Petco. Whole foods. CVS.
There is also a Starbucks. Or more precisely, S-T-A-R-B-U-C-K-S enunciated in the hand symbols of American Sign Language.
This finger correction is a way of locating the coffee giant's first American signature store, where 24 employees who are deaf, hard of hearing and hard of hearing manage the store in ASL. The store debuted Tuesday after being converted from a standard Starbucks website to make design and technology more accessible. According to employees and advocates, this is a step towards creating jobs for the deaf while immersing hearing-impaired people in spaces for the deaf. And it's a demonstration of the support of one of the world's largest corporate brands.
"My identity is accepted here," said Crystal Harris, a barista at the autograph shop. "Deafness has many faces."
The store is a few blocks from Gallaudet University, a 150-year-old institution and the only university in the world designed for deaf and hard of hearing students. The store is reminiscent of Starbucks' first signature store, which opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2016. Guests on the outside can see "Starbucks" written between two fingers, under the main logo and on big umbrellas. And inside, what can look like any other Starbucks coffee has been specially laid out and decorated to celebrate the deaf culture.
An entire wall, for example, is covered with a multicolored mural commissioned by a deaf artist and a member of the Gallaudet faculty. On the finger, the mural depicts a lowercase d on deaf, a capital "D" representing the deaf identity, an eye to represent visual connections, a hand holding a cup of coffee and other symbols showing the fusion of the deaf and auditory cultures.
The store employs 24 workers who are all fluent in American Sign Language. (Joshua Trujillo / Starbucks)
Customers can communicate in ASL or write their orders on a Tech Pad. Rather than waiting for their names to be called at the end of the bar, customers take a look at a screen indicating when their drinks are ready. The store has also been refurbished to maximize visibility and visibility, such as high tables or large stacks of cups, which limit the visibility of people connecting to each other. Clients who do not sign are also encouraged to use visual cues. Instead of signing the store did not offer chamomile tea, for example, an employee put his hand on the back of the neck, saying "no," then pointed to a menu with other options.
Camille Hymes, Starbucks Regional Vice President for the Central Atlantic Coast region, said the company chose DC for its proximity to Gallaudet and for the city's links to community activism deaf people. According to Hymes, using the store as a profitable business model, Starbucks can set an example for other companies: "use our ladder for good".
Adam Novsam, Starbucks Public Services Analyst and leading member of the Deaf Society, said he had heard "Deaf communities from around the world wish them this space." Starbucks or cafes and face constant communication barriers. He still has his order typed on his phone, for example, "to accommodate the other person".
The store's manager, Matthew Gilsbach, left the California Bay area for the signature location. At one point in his three-and-a-half years in the company, Gilsbach was stunned to meet a deaf district director from Starbucks.
"I thought, wait, there's a deaf district director?" Says Gilsbach. "What is going on?"
Starbucks signage includes spelling of fingers on the walls and large table umbrellas. (Joshua Trujillo / Starbucks)
Any disbelief that a deaf person could assume a leadership or management role is precisely the type of stigma that Starbucks and advocates in the Deaf community seek to fight. Howard Rosenblum, director general of the National Association of the Deaf, said companies can hire deaf employees at lower levels, but that these opportunities rarely extend to the chain.
Some companies are showing signs of progress: Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Accessibility Manager at Microsoft, is deaf and fought to expand accessibility for employees with disabilities. Nevertheless, the unemployment and underemployment rate of the deaf community is 70%, said Rosenblum.
"The manager is always an auditor because there is a perception of limited capacity with deaf people," said Rosenblum.
Not so at H Street Starbucks. The employee Kylie Garcia had just been promoted from barista to shift supervisor. Garcia grew up as the only deaf person in a non-signatory and hearing family, and she knows very well how difficult it is for people who are deaf to find a job. Garcia previously worked at a Starbucks kiosk at a Target store where his only job was to make drinks. She never interacted with clients and was often excluded from conversations with other baristas.
"People refused to offer me a job because they did not want to take the risk," Garcia said.
Pamela Pipes, an audience barista who is also a sign language interpreter, has left Raleigh, NC, to work in the DC's autograph shop. "The tables have turned," said Pipes. in which hearing clients will have to find ways to navigate and communicate in deaf places.
Sitting in front of her, Harris joked that during the remodeling phases, some customers were still perplexed. Some waited to hear their names at the end of the counter. Another entered and, as if to point out that he wanted a large glass, held his hands in front of him about two feet apart.
The store will continue to gather feedback from customers and employees, and Starbucks could draw the attention of another city to the next store of signings. But this week, Novsam saw a dream come true. Two nights before the opening of Starbucks, Novsam walked down H Street to see the wall mural radiating with yellows, pinks, greens and blues.
"Dynamism has moved me," Novsam said. "It made me stop in my tracks. And it even gave me tears.
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