Deaf Waiters Bring Mime, Smiles to Paris Cafe

From: Reuters, UK - Aug 25, 2003

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS (Reuters) - At the Cafe Signes in Paris, the staff wear beaming smiles, the service is faultless and there is no yelling from the kitchen.

But if you want something to eat or drink, you are going to have to work out how to mime it -- most of the staff are deaf.

Armed with a leaflet showing the sign language for useful cafe terms and a sign alphabet printed on the place mats, clients at the four-month-old cafe smack their palms together and wave clumsy circles in the air as they try to order.

The ever-patient serving staff are adept at interpreting the gawky gestures of their ham-fisted customers, and for a rare moment, they enjoy the upper hand.

"Things are back to front here -- people who can't master sign language feel handicapped while the deaf are quite in their element," said Claudie Maynier, one of the four "hearing staff" who support the deaf or hearing-impaired workers.

What seemed like a huge gamble on paper has proved to be a roaring success, attracting curious locals in droves, as well as the hard of hearing from Paris and around the world, and helping break down the barriers between them.

"Doing something unprecedented is always worrying, but it is working amazingly well," said Daniel Seguret, spokesman for the Entraide Universitaire association which runs work projects for the handicapped in Paris' 14th arrondissement.

"We have ordinary regulars who come in, say 'hello' in sign language, sit down next to a deaf person and quite happily have a go at communicating. It's changing people's perception of the handicap and making a huge difference to the deaf staff."

CONFIDENCE BOOST

Being born deaf often leads to psychological or behavioral problems, linked to difficulties with communicating and forming relationships as a young child.

Even in later life, without a visible prop such as a white stick to alert others to the handicap, integrating into public life can be frustrating and distressing when all around people are having conversations you cannot easily follow or join in.

"It doesn't help that many parents won't bother talking to a baby that's deaf. And as an adult, it's a horrid feeling always wondering if people are talking about you and being shut out until someone looks you in the eye," Seguret said.

"But some of the staff at the cafe have made tremendous progress and are more at ease, more confident than before."

Watching 27-year-old Bruce breezily polishing glasses, you'd never guess he had a worry in the world. Grinning broadly, he jokes around with the staff or strikes up an animated sign conversation with a deaf customer at the bar.

"I love working here. I feel like I exist. I can't lip read, but I can still communicate. I give people post-it notes to write down what they want, or they point to the menu," Bruce said, using Maynier to translate.

Most of the staff, who have hand signals spelling "welcome" printed on the back of their T-shirts, used to spend their days shut off from the public in special workshops for the handicapped, making things like jewelry or packaging.

Valerie, 36, darts merrily toward the kitchen, alerted by a vibrating beeper on her belt that hot food is ready for collecting.

"It's much more fun here. It's hard work but I meet people and it's interesting," Valerie said in near-perfect French -- having only started to speak out loud since taking the new job.

A CHANCE TO MINGLE

The cafe, opened in Europe's "Year for the Handicapped," has drawn hearing-impaired people from as far as Japan and Mexico.

Local office workers stream in at lunchtime and switch naturally into mime mode to communicate with the staff.

Passers-by also trickle in, not realizing there is anything out of the ordinary about the eatery, with its chrome sidewalk tables, trendy rust-colored awning and halogen-lit interior.

Discreet signs warn newcomers that the waiters cannot hear them.

So attractive is this chance to mingle in a normal environment -- not easy in a country where almost all companies prefer to pay a fine than employ handicapped people -- that many other deaf people in the area covet positions at the cafe.

"It's true the atmosphere is great. You have to keep things fun to avoid any tension," said head chef Fabrice Cia, another "hearer" who uses sign language to communicate with his cooks.

"Sometimes I yell in the kitchen when things get busy or go wrong. Sometimes I sing too. But they can't hear me either way."

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