RALEIGH, NC (WTVD/CNN) - A young woman in North Carolina who is deaf got to order for herself at a fast food restaurant for the first time.
It was all thanks to a cashier.
Hearing impaired since birth, Cynthia is fluent in sign language, but in a world where others don't understand, something as simple as trying to order fast food can be embarrassing.
"People just look at her, then they look at us like, what are we supposed to do? So we always had to do the ordering for her," Cynthia’s mom Terri Buelman said.
Buelman said they heard about a young cashier at the Chick-fil-A in town who knew sign language and helped hearing impaired customers with their orders. The family went to the location.
After hesitating, Cynthia started signing, and was instantly surprised and overjoyed when the cashier responded.
"If you notice in the video she kind of looked at me like, is this working, am I really doing this? So she really enjoyed doing that and she is looking forward to going back," Buelman said.
Taylor Anez, the cashier, is an high school senior. The restaurant manager didn't know she could sign.
"I have two family members whom are deaf so whenever I was younger, they would babysit me and I just kinda would learn sign language from them," Anez said.
Meanwhile, Cynthia’s story and video have gone viral, as a simple order of chicken nuggets echoed new hope in a world of silence.
"Bring awareness to the deaf culture, more businesses really need to try to make things a little easier for them, because their lives are difficult enough," Buelman said
As the video gets attention online, a Go Fund Me page has raised nearly three thousand dollars toward the goal of $15,000 to get a service dog for Cynthia.
On the page, she writes that she has a number of medical conditions aside from deafness.
Courtesy: CNN Newsource
