Karen, the amazon woman!

Discriminatory practices still exist today. Read the following to see how difficult it was for one woman to order a milkshake from Steak 'n Shake restaurant in Chicago.

Karen Putz, who is deaf, drove past the drive thru speaker and went straight to the window to order two milkshakes as she has done several times before. She says the general manager who waited on her did not accommodate her disability.

"His response was, 'Could you please drive around again? Place your order'? And I was like, 'I can't do that. And I can't hear. I can't use the speaker back there,'" Putz said.

She said she and the general manager had a lengthy exchange at the window. She said the manager threatened to call the police on her if she didn't leave, and then he denied her service.

"He's like, 'That's it. I'm done with you.' And then he shut the window," Putz said.

Read Karen's blog here and the news coverage here and here and view the video, its gets better!

Talk about falling on deaf ears, what a wanker! You would think the Manager would have the common sense to correlate that being deaf and using a speakerphone doesn't work well because it requires, um well some HEARING! Where were his brains, in his... let me stop. If that was me, it wouldn't have been pretty. The inner Jersey in me would have quickly emerged, parked my car, flipped my phone to camcorder, marched right in, and begged him to call the police. That might or might not be the best way to handle that but Karen used her head. She went right to the media and told them about her experience with being denied service because she could not hear. This is a big issue today with deaf people and the lack of accommodations in the USA. I for one, applaud Karen for the courage and tenacity not to just sweep this under the rug but to exploit the fact that discrimination like this still happens today even with the Americans with Disabilities Act in effect, kind of.

Karen, YOU ARE THE AMAZON WOMAN! :)

***********Update**********

I'm appalled at some of the comments on Karen's blog such as

Anonymous: .... However, I'm concerned about how you executed the complaint. "PMSing" is nothing but an excuse in light of filing a formal complaint. Your message has to be relentless in sticking to the discrimination bit.

Trailer park types are interested in drama. PMSing is reserved for the Jerry Springer audience.

Anonymous: ... wow, you could quite possibly be one of the DUMBEST people on the planet - I eat at that steak and shake, am hard of hearing and found the general manager to be highly helpful, maybe if you weren't trying to stand on a political soapbox, you would see that, don't let your disability define you.

Anonymous: ... I'm sorry you're deaf, but if you cannot use the speaker, get out of your car and go inside. No this does not excuse the employees treatment of you, but come on - you know you cannot order at the speaker - GO INSIDE!!

Tsk, tsk, tsk...

This is my comment to those flamers that I left on Karen's blog..

Holy cow! I am appalled by these ridiculous comments. Obviously they are not familiar with the law, allow me to share with you what the ADA CLEARLY states. Feast yours eyes on this Mr. Anonymous and I have even included a link for your reading pleasure right here

TITLE 42--THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
CHAPTER 126--EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
SUBCHAPTER III--PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS AND SERVICES OPERATED BY PRIVATE ENTITIES
Sec. 12182. Prohibition of discrimination by public accommodations

(a) General rule
No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, of accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.

AND

(2) Specific prohibitions
(A) Discrimination
(ii) a failure to make reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures, when such modifications are necessary to afford such goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations to individuals with disabilities, unless the entity can demonstrate that making such modifications would fundamentally alter the nature of such goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations;

What does that mean folks? It means that anyone that has a disability deserves the right to have a reasonable accommodation made to help serve them. A reasonable accommodation would have been taking the damn order at the window. It should have not been an issue after she stated that was hard of hearing. The manager apparently had ample amount of time while bickering with her to change his mind and boost profits for the business but he shut the window in her face! I could see if the manager felt that he was in a hostile environment if a car full of thugs rolled up to the drive through but a deaf woman with a 10 year old kid in the back seat? Give me a break.

This has everything to do with Karen rights and making sure that this does not happen to anyone else.

Remember, it just took one woman refusal to give up her bus seat to make a difference and but I suppose she was pms'ing back then too.