On the 28th of February, is Rare Disease Day, maybe not many people knew about the significance of the day but there are many for whom this day is quite special as it raises awareness about their conditions.
There are more than 300 million people worldwide, suffering from some kind of a “rare” disease, making their lives much more difficult and complicated compared to the general population.
Some of these people suffer often from more than one condition.
Our story today is about a young woman who suffers among her other conditions, of deafness too.
You can only imagine how difficult it is for her to navigate everyday life, especially when the rest of us don’t really know how to sign.
Meet Cynthia Walker a 22-year-old from Fayetteville, North Carolina, a beautiful young woman who is used to be dependent on her parents’ help in order to do some of her everyday tasks.
Back in 2016, Cynthia, accompanied by her parents, walked into a Chick-fil-A for a meal and had one of the most surprising experiences in her life, while trying to order.
Due to her lack of hearing, it had always been really difficult for Cynthia to communicate with the others, as they didn’t know ASL.
However, on that day, the cashier in the Chick-fil-A not only had known how to sign but she started communicating with Cynthia with no apparent problems, making Cynthia smile throughout their exchange.
You can see in the photos how happy and excited Cynthia is to be able to order her meal on her own without requiring help from her parents.
It is obvious that it must be a very satisfying and pleasing experience for her.
The cashier’s name was Taylor Anez, a high school senior, and apparently, it wasn’t her first time using her ASL skills in order to communicate with hearing-impaired customers. A
man who was present at the scene with a post on the local Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page praised and congratulated Taylor for her performance.
“Taylor was so professional and so proficient in sign language for the deaf,” Luis Gutierrez wrote.
Apparently, the manager of Chick-fil-A wasn’t aware of Taylor’s ASL skills, it wasn’t among the qualifications they often ask from their future employees during their hiring process. However, they were delighted to find out about her “rare” knowledge.
“We are particular in selecting people with hearts to serve and then we encourage them to use their skills and our resources to make every guest’s visit remarkable! We are very blessed to have her!”, said the Chick-fil-A representative.
Undoubtedly, this is one of those moments in life that makes you appreciate your fellow human beings, especially those who are willing to meet you half-way.
The real question is how many people like Taylor are there in the world, who happen to know a language so rarely used outside the hearing impaired communities?
Maybe it shouldn’t be such a “rare” occurrence if all the stores and restaurants made sure to ask their employees to learn ASL, or at least have a couple of people among their staff who know how to sign and they can help those for whom ASL is the only way of communication.
If you would like to see the whole Chick-fil-A scene, watch the video below!
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