California Jack In The Box Employee Fired For Berating Deaf Woman For Not Using Drive-Through Speaker

A deaf woman says that an employee at a California Jack in the Box location “berated” her for not using the drive-through speaker, and even mocked her disability, WTAP-TV reports. The employee has since been fired.

ReVae Arnaud-Jensen says that she went to the fast-food chain’s Campbell, California, location in the wee hours of August 31. Since she’s deaf, she can’t use the drive-through speaker, and instead pulls up to the window so she can communicate directly with the workers.

However, on this particular occasion, the worker wasn’t having it. She says that the man on the other side of the window not only refused to serve her, continuously telling her to move, but also allegedly mocked her for her disability and yelled at her.

In video of the incident, which you can see below, Arnaud-Jensen can be seen trying valiantly to communicate with the employee, pointing at her lips and saying “Deaf! Deaf!” The man keeps saying, in broken English, “Go use speaker! Go use speaker!” She then pleads with the employee, saying she wants to order, but the man behind the window continues to insist that he can’t serve her.

Arnaud-Jensen says that she spent two hours at the location, and was never served.

She says she later complained to the manager, and was told that the employee has been fired. However, that’s not enough: she wants Jack in the Box locations all over to retrain their employees when it comes to serving deaf customers.

“I was just fed up, the constant, you know, telling us to go, when it should be equal access,” she said. “This needs to stop. It’s very common everywhere. It needs to stop. This is 2019. I fight for equal access. And I feel awful. I feel like it was my fault,” she said.

In a statement, the company expressed regret at the way Arnaud-Jensen was treated.

“We do not tolerate the mistreatment of any customers and expect employees to follow all training procedures, be respectful, courteous and accommodating to all guests,” the statement reads.

A very similar situation had reportedly occurred just days earlier, at a Burger King in Oklahoma. As reported at the time by The Inquisitr, Rachel Hollis, who is deaf, said that an employee at an Oklahoma City location steadfastly refused to serve her because she wanted to order from the window instead of at the speaker.

Burger King, like Jack in the Box, issued an apology, and said that its employees will undergo sensitivity training.