Roughly half of all deaf people have experienced discrimination in the job, and roughly 25% have had to leave a job because of discrimination. This is unfair, improper, and unacceptable.

Unfortunately, Starbucks – a company that prides itself on tolerance, diversity, and inclusion – has engaged in discrimination of two deaf baristas, Larissa Towns and Ashley “Nikki” Maier, in one of the Starbucks located at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Washington. These baristas worked hard at their job, and engaged in lip reading – a common practice in the deaf community – to interact with co-workers and customers. But Starbucks would made it difficult on them at every stage – the other employees often failed to talk to them, forced them to work consistently at point-of-sale, and made them work at the busiest times, to ensure that they would have to engage in more customer interaction than their counterparts. And when these two baristas asked for assistance, Starbucks rejected their claims and even retaliated against them. At the end of the day, Starbucks fired Ms. Towns for not being “chatty” enough with her customers, and has refused to promote Ms. Maier. Starbucks discriminated against Ms. Towns and Ms. Maier due to their hearing loss. This is not right. This is not fair. And Starbucks should be ashamed.

Please sign the petition if you support Larissa and Nikki.

Starbucks Complaint

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