Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
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ROCHESTER — Dining out sounds good, but those who are deaf or hard of hearing might not always see it that way. Sometimes the local deaf and hard of hearing community has a less positive experience in local restaurants. The masks required by the pandemic have made this situation worse as they cover mouths and don’t allow lip reading.

Eileen Bruns is doing her part to make those customers more comfortable when they visit local hospitality businesses. She’ll be hosting an American Sign Language workshop intended to help hearing service industry professionals better interact with their deaf and hard of hearing customers. The class will take place every Monday in April from 6-8 p.m. at the Art Heads Emporium, 317 S. Broadway.

Bruns has lived in Rochester for 25 years. She first became interested in sign language when she was 26 and fell in love with Gary, the man who would later become her husband.

“When you fall in love with a deaf guy, you’ve got to learn their language quickly,” she said. Bruns says she met her husband at a disco, and it was love at first sight. They’ve been married for 34 years.

During her partnership with Gary, whom Bruns describes as a patient teacher, she has learned about some of the things that make American Sign Language (ASL) unique. She says the visual nature of the language depends on gestures, facial expressions, and use of physical space to enable communication. After Bruns married Gary, with his support, she went back to college to study ASL.

When Bruns and her husband go to local eateries and other service-industry destinations, one common error she notices is staff tend to avoid communicating with her husband.

“The most common negative interaction,” she said, “is when someone in the service industry chooses not to communicate directly with the deaf or hard of hearing person and instead talks just to the hearing person in the group.”

“People who work in the service industry can improve their interactions with the deaf community by making an effort to learn how to make the environment more deaf friendly,” she said. “This includes being able to greet deaf or hard of hearing guests, introducing themselves, and finding out how to best communicate with their guests so that their needs can be met.”

Bruns was approached in restaurants, breweries, and at the Art Heads Emporium studio, where she is a co-owner and teacher, by people who asked where they might learn some ASL basics to improve their service for deaf and hard of hearing customers. Those queries gave life to the weekly workshop planned for April.

“My dad, Gary, is a loving human — funny, and artistically gifted,” said Leah Bee, a co-owner of the Art Heads Emporium along with her mother. “ASL was my first language. Communication was difficult in my teenage years, and looking back, I think that was …….

Source: https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/servers-sign-up-for-sign-language-classes