Miss-Delectable
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http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/yr4/YR_News/Newscentre/Regional/story/3486554p-4027647c.html
Trying to purchase food to host a dinner party for eight is challenging enough, but think about how tough it would be if you couldn't hear, speak or write.
This is exactly what Regional Councillor Tony Van Bynen was asked to do as part of the Deaf for a Day 2006 campaign hosted by the York Region Canadian Hearing Society.
The event included York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge faced with ordering a bouquet of flowers of specific colours and types to be sent to a Niagara address in two days, while Central Local Health Integration Network CEO Hy Eliasoph had to purchase a computer for his children without being able to hear or speak.
"This is the perfect example of the shoe being on the other foot," Canadian Hearing Society CEO Kelly Duffin said.
"All of this is to stress the importance of communication that the hearing take for granted."
Participants had their ears filled with a silicone liquid, accessorized by a stylish set of headphones to ensure hearing was not an option.
Mr. Van Bynen was off to M&M Meats with his deaf buddy, Jack Osten, who would help him fulfill his task, which was to buy what he needed for a dinner of eight including appetizers, a main dish, vegetables and small desserts without exceeding a budget of $100, without speaking, writing or hearing.
There were some special things he needed to keep in mind as well, such as one guest had a seafood allergy, one was a vegetarian and another had a heart condition and has to limit fat intake.
"I didn't get some of the gestures he was using at first," M&M employee Sylvia Rockel said. "But once I got the hang of it, we started to get somewhere."
The first tool Mr. Van Bynen used was the flyer to point to and show what he wanted. After finding the right product, he used his fingers to demonstrate how many people he was feeding.
"It was difficult differentiating between servings and people," Mr. Van Bynen said. "Getting what I wanted wasn't the hardest part, it was trying to get advice on the stuff I was getting."
Pointing at posters, flyers and singling out specific words seemed to get the point across. With Mr. Osten's help, he even managed to get cooking times, but it did take time and patience from the employee for a transaction that would have normally taken five minutes, but ended up taking 45 minutes.
"It was a humbling and eye-opening experience," he said after having the ear moulds removed. "I admire people like Jack who can still smile and not scream with frustration."
Mr. Osten explained, with the help of an interpreter, he experiences things such as this every day. Only about half the time are clerks willing to spend time helping him.
"I was once in a coffee shop and the person behind the counter got very angry at me," he said, through the interpreter. "The person told me to get out because they didn't understand."
In instances such as this, Mr. Osten contacts the company's head office via e-mail and informs them of the incident and how employees need to be trained for this type of situation.
At the end of the day, Mr. Van Bynen, Chief La Barge and Mr. Eliasoph all agreed to take this experience back to their place of employment and work on initiatives to overcome this communication barrier because not only are the deaf, deafened or hard of hearing missing out on what society is saying, but society is missing out on what they have to say.
Trying to purchase food to host a dinner party for eight is challenging enough, but think about how tough it would be if you couldn't hear, speak or write.
This is exactly what Regional Councillor Tony Van Bynen was asked to do as part of the Deaf for a Day 2006 campaign hosted by the York Region Canadian Hearing Society.
The event included York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge faced with ordering a bouquet of flowers of specific colours and types to be sent to a Niagara address in two days, while Central Local Health Integration Network CEO Hy Eliasoph had to purchase a computer for his children without being able to hear or speak.
"This is the perfect example of the shoe being on the other foot," Canadian Hearing Society CEO Kelly Duffin said.
"All of this is to stress the importance of communication that the hearing take for granted."
Participants had their ears filled with a silicone liquid, accessorized by a stylish set of headphones to ensure hearing was not an option.
Mr. Van Bynen was off to M&M Meats with his deaf buddy, Jack Osten, who would help him fulfill his task, which was to buy what he needed for a dinner of eight including appetizers, a main dish, vegetables and small desserts without exceeding a budget of $100, without speaking, writing or hearing.
There were some special things he needed to keep in mind as well, such as one guest had a seafood allergy, one was a vegetarian and another had a heart condition and has to limit fat intake.
"I didn't get some of the gestures he was using at first," M&M employee Sylvia Rockel said. "But once I got the hang of it, we started to get somewhere."
The first tool Mr. Van Bynen used was the flyer to point to and show what he wanted. After finding the right product, he used his fingers to demonstrate how many people he was feeding.
"It was difficult differentiating between servings and people," Mr. Van Bynen said. "Getting what I wanted wasn't the hardest part, it was trying to get advice on the stuff I was getting."
Pointing at posters, flyers and singling out specific words seemed to get the point across. With Mr. Osten's help, he even managed to get cooking times, but it did take time and patience from the employee for a transaction that would have normally taken five minutes, but ended up taking 45 minutes.
"It was a humbling and eye-opening experience," he said after having the ear moulds removed. "I admire people like Jack who can still smile and not scream with frustration."
Mr. Osten explained, with the help of an interpreter, he experiences things such as this every day. Only about half the time are clerks willing to spend time helping him.
"I was once in a coffee shop and the person behind the counter got very angry at me," he said, through the interpreter. "The person told me to get out because they didn't understand."
In instances such as this, Mr. Osten contacts the company's head office via e-mail and informs them of the incident and how employees need to be trained for this type of situation.
At the end of the day, Mr. Van Bynen, Chief La Barge and Mr. Eliasoph all agreed to take this experience back to their place of employment and work on initiatives to overcome this communication barrier because not only are the deaf, deafened or hard of hearing missing out on what society is saying, but society is missing out on what they have to say.