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I normally agree that the ADA has been misused but as a guy who lost his hearing due to samll arms, artillery fire and helicopter noise while in Vietnam I sympathize with this woman. I have a lot of trouble with the ordering system equipment at drive throughs particularly if English is not even close to the first langauge of the order taker. There is almost nothing that can be done to correct the problem, It just one of those things that hearing impaired people have to deal with.

gibbswtr

Thanks for your service.

So, you have trouble at a drive-in window. Why not pull into the parking lot and go inside?

I don,t mean to be an ass here, but you have to accommodate your deficiencies as best you can.

If the American public was forced to accommodate every self-perceived mental or physical deficiency; we would not be able to accommodate those who are truly in need. I know, you have suffered a traumatic injury. but, you just have to get over it.

I have a first cousin, born deaf, functions nicely in the world, knows her limitations, never expects special favor; and here you are, a bitch who complains about ordering take-out at a speaker...Please..

Most of the time I do go inside but there are times when I am driving that the take out is faster and easier. It is not an imposition to me just a hassle. It was not so bad until I had to deal with the low fidelity speakers plus people from Somalia, Mexico, Cambodia who do not speak English! I was offered hearing aids and life time hearing care from VA and I turned it down becuase I felt I did not deserve it and that my hearing was the price I paid for living in the US. I accomodate all the time, I have special phones, I lip read and focus, I have special headphones that allow me to watch TV, I use the head sets in the movies.

I don't think this woman is a moonbat at all. And I am super conservative on most issues.
The fact is, she has asked the McDonald's to accomodate her by simply driving to the window. Which is NO BIG DEAL in the realm of an inconveneince to the store. Other companies allow it. I worked a drive through window at Wendy's in the late 80s and WE accomodated the deaf. She did not ask for UNREASONABLE special treatment. After all, you have to drive to the window anyway, right? All it might add is a few seconds to the daily average on the drive thru handle time.

BTW: Deafness is not a "self-perceived mental or physical deficiency" saying that does make you an ass here. Calling her a bitch makes you even worse. I guess that is why you posted anonymoulsy.

Karma is a bitch, when it happens to you, I expect to hear nothing but silence from you about how hard it is.

I have to agree with Ron S and the vet (salute, brother!) on this. Even people with decent hearing sometimes have trouble with those speakers and some places now have an "order" window and a "pick-up" window.

At the risk of sounding somewhat 'lame' - I can identify with the frustrations of the hearing impaired.

Here's the lame part: I'm a tall individual with a semi-bad back, and I'm color-blind. Would it be asking too much for clothing manufacturers to put the color of the garments on the tags? I can never purchase clothes without 'help' or I would end up looking like a complete fool. And while they're at it with the tags - why do department stores insist on putting large sizes on the bottom shelf and small sizes on the top shelf? They ALL do it, and big guys like me have to get down on our hands an knees to search for stuff while the little guys have to find a ladder.

Told you it was lame - but I feel better having bitched. :-)

(And McDonalds sucks anyway.)

Sorry, I can't go along. Our society cannot afford moonbattery, and this lawsuit is moonbattery.

The next thing you know, radio stations will be required to simultaneously broadcast an accompanying digital transcription of their programs so the deaf can participate in talk shows... Oops! Did I let that one out of the bag? That's another way the left can shut down talk radio.

Then there's websites...

Van, you will be sued if your website is not deemed ADA compliant.

http://www.icdri.org/CynthiaW/is_%20yoursite_ada_compliant.htm

The question is: should she (or more accurately, her attorney) be allowed to collect a windfall because McDonald's has an idiotic policy? What's the actual damage she suffered? She couldn't order a Big Mac? BFD! She should log onto a deafness-advocacy website, tell her story, and sit back and watch McD's scramble to prevent a boycott by thousands of deaf people. Or she could go to BK or Wendy's...

please spend some time with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing before making some of these statements. I am the President/Founder of a company (www.Inclusionsolutions.com) that develops technology and communication systems to address these very issues. There are 28 million people in the US who are both Deaf and Hard of Hearing - if you just simply look at the market, it's worth serving. It's too bad that it takes attorneys to get people to value that market. I do think the litigation causes people to get sideways and not see the real reasons behind the ADA.

Read what Craig Culver says about our system in a recent QSR interview http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/exclusives/0208/culver-1.phtml

"It’s just doing the right thing,” says Culver, “Whether it gets the use or not, it’s saying the right thing and that’s why I’m doing it. And this is not just for the deaf or the hard of hearing. This works perfectly for people who might be too embarrassed to go through drive-thrus not just because of being deaf or hard of hearing, but also not knowing English that well. This allows them to feel a lot more comfortable.”

to see a news story on youtube about this issue and how we solved it.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjW1eWopbZU

the drive thru employees are also frustrated by this communication gap and need a tool like our OrderAssist to make their stressful job a little easier. We believe we have addressed this in a very practical and dignified way.

The problem, ultimately, is that people get used to an 'extra service' and then complain when it isn't available to them. It's an added convenience for customers, like having an grocery store clerk help you carry your bags out. We get so used to drive through windows that we expect it as something normal and natural.

McDonalds was not interfering with this person's ability to order food. They don't have to offer a convenient drive through window. They just do as an extra perk to be competitive. They just wanted her not to block the (probably busy) drive through window trying to figure out what she wanted. Just because, say, a convenient fast-moving walkway isn't available to wheelchair users but an alternative exists doesn't mean you can go around suing people. Or maybe there's a policy to not keep people at the window because they might have time to get angry and shoot the worker at the window (or rob the place).

I imagine part of the policy exists to reduce needless stress on overworked employees. Having worked drive through for a year I distinctly remember how tired I was and how complications like this would make it really difficult to get people's orders right and out on time.

It's about the shittiest job in the world and I'd rate it on the order of being a garbage collector. If you can't complete orders in 60 seconds you get yelled at by the boss and you have to deal with people like her all day long wanting you to figure out what they want. No thanks. This is why only people who can't speak English will put up with doing this for such a low wage.

So I have no sympathy for this woman. She can't use an extra, optional service to order food. Too bad.

I wear hearing aids. In spite of that, I cannot hear well. TV,talk radio, fast food speakers are particularly hard for me to hear. So, I do not listen to talk radio if I am having a hard time that day, I listen to instrumental music. I frustrate my son by always pulling into a parking space at a fast food store and going inside. It is less stressful for me and I am sure for the worker.
I sympathize with the lady, but she would be better sreve to adjust to her handicap. She will have a happier life.

My daughter, who is 12, also must use hearing aids. Without them she could not realistically function within the hearing world...a normal conversational tone to her sounds like a faint whisper. While the aids make her life much better than it would be if she didn't have them, they are not perfect: for example, she cannot hear the newer digital cordless phones or cell phones unless they are in speaker phone mode. She does better with the old fashioned phones that have a cord running from the handset to the unit. She also cannot use the "ear buds" popular with iPods...should we sue Apple?

She's not old enough yet to try ordering at drive throughs, but when the day comes, I will encourage her to adjust (as I always do) as MrBill does. Suing McDonald's because it doesn't adapt to each and every customer's specific need is counterproductive.

May I remind you that ADA was signed by a conservative president, George H W Bush?