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February 16, 2013 at 2:49 am #606516
I don’t know the PC term for the man who helped me at Home Depot today. He was deaf and dumb. And he was the best customer service rep for Home Depot that I have ever met.
His name is Kevin, and I was scrambling with my limited sign language when he simply wrote ‘what can I help you with?’. I answered and we roamed the store. When we found my item, he picked up real quickly that I didn’t know how to put it together… so he went thru the instuctions with me and demo’d some of it.
We are all differently abled in our own ways and I’m grateful that Kevin was the one to help me with my gap in ability!
February 16, 2013 at 4:21 am #784632I think it might be mute. Deaf and mute. I could be wrong. The point is moot. I love when I encounter capable and helpful reps like you found in Kevin. It really makes a difference in the shopping experience.
February 16, 2013 at 4:42 am #784633I’m thinking you are right… dumb doesn’t come anywhere near describing his challenge.
February 16, 2013 at 6:49 am #784634Yes he is wonderful to work with, always smiles. What more could one ask for, even if it is big box store.
February 17, 2013 at 1:07 pm #784635Yikes, FWIW the description would simply be “deaf”. “Deaf and dumb” and “deaf mute” are old terms and as you guessed, not in use. Within the Deaf community people use lots of different ways to express themselves. Thanks for being aware about confusion over how to describe the situation.
February 17, 2013 at 3:52 pm #784636Thank you for clearing up the confusion with terms. I did want to say that he was deaf and mute…to show how ably he communicated without speech or hearing.
My daughter and I lived in Germany when she was very young and she was diagnosed with neurological challenges. They wanted to put her in their Eine Brucke school, the place where they sent children of differing abilities all together… both physical or intellectual difference…it was a nice place, kind of a farm of sorts. But it underscored their difference from the ‘normal’ children and thus defined a different education.
I hope it has changed since then, but I’m so grateful to be part of a society that strives to provide education, opportunity and respect to all abilities. We’re not perfect and sometimes we are downright sloppy about it, but meeting Kevin reinforced the fact that we are trying.
February 19, 2013 at 1:12 am #784637thank you for posting this- I enjoyed reading it.
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