Businesses in India see benefits of hiring staff with speech and hearing impairments
- Restaurant owners find that staff who cannot hear or speak are less easily distracted, and smile more, than non-disabled staff
- Some businesses now make their hiring of disabled staff a selling point
It’s a busy Saturday evening for Nabeel C.H., the floor manager at Echoes Koramangala, a multi-cuisine dining space in an upscale Bangalore neighbourhood.
All 12 tables in the restaurant are occupied and more people are waiting in the anteroom. Some are reading the feedback left by visitors on tissue paper tacked on a wall. Others are attempting to sign their names using cues from the sign- language keyboard spread over another wall.
A few are on their phones, searching for “hello” and “thank you” in sign language, so they can exchange greetings with the speech- and hearing-impaired waiting staff inside.
As one couple leaves, Nabeel reaches out to a pair of other guests in the anteroom, guiding them to a table. He fetches a menu card and a notepad for them to scribble the codes, quantities and any special requirements for the dishes they wish to order.
He moves his index finger from the light switch hanging above, and points to the light bulbs above the cash counter, showing the guests how they light up and alert staff to pick up an order. A set of cue cards on the table indicates how they can ask for water, a menu or cutlery.
Nabeel is a happy-go-lucky 26-year-old from the nearby Indian state of Kerala, who moved to Bangalore last year to work at Echoes Koramangala, which prefers to employ speech- and hearing-impaired staff like him.