A video posted by Shannon Heroux, who is deaf, on September 13 on TikTok has since gone viral, as viewers react to her narrative of how she was refused service at a Dunkin’ location when she asked employees to lower their masks so she could read their lips.
The story: The viral video posted by Heroux shows her in tears moments after she was refused service at a Dunkin’ restaurant for asking the employees taking her order to write down their responses or pull their masks down so she could read their lips.
In the video, Heroux recounts through tears her devastation at the way she was treated as a deaf person.
After the employees refused her requests to write down their responses or pull their masks down so she could read their lips, Heroux said she was baffled.
When she asked if they were going to take her order, the employee shook their head “No,” and Heroux left the restaurant.
She took to TikTok soon after to tell her version of the events.
Heroux’s remarks: “I couldn’t hear anything. I wear a cochlear implant, but I didn’t have it on at that time,” Heroux sobbed. “I’ve never been refused service and it hurts.”
“He didn’t believe me. You could see it in his body language,” she continued. “I kept saying, ‘Write it down,’ once or twice, and then he just kept talking with his mask on. And then before I know it, I said, ‘Are you going to take my order?’ and he said no, or he shook his head no.”
Heroux said mask mandates have been particularly hard for her, as she has had to depend largely on her partner to communicate with masked individuals.
She indicated that on prior occasions ordering food, she has relied on the kindness of the employees taking her order, who usually complied with her request for help in communicating due to her hearing disability.
However, at the Dunkin’ location in Encino, California, she did not receive this courtesy.
“He refused to put the mask down. We’re six feet apart, there’s a plexiglass to the side. I’m wearing my mask. Like, what more do you want from us. We struggle so much during this pandemic. Enough is enough,” Heroux concluded.
See the video:
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