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Istanbul café takes orders in sign language and employs six Deaf baristas
At Dialogue Café, part of the Istanbul Dialogue Museum, customers can order coffee in sign language using videos and images on the menu. The café at Gayrettepe Metro Station currently employs six Deaf baristas, who help visitors communicate using basic signs.
Dialogue Café, which opened at Gayrettepe Metro Station in 2016, serves as a meeting place where customers can order coffee in sign language. The café currently employs six Deaf baristas.
Customers place their orders by viewing videos, illustrations and images showing the sign-language equivalents of the coffees on the menu. The baristas also help visitors who have difficulty communicating or feel hesitant while ordering.
Baristas manage the entire process
Nilay Goncagül, director of the Istanbul Dialogue Museum, said the idea for Dialogue Café emerged after the interest and talent of Deaf individuals in making coffee were discovered.
Goncagül said that employees who were not Deaf worked at the café during its early period, adding that interest in the café among Deaf individuals gradually increased and that they began learning to work as baristas. She said many people had received barista training over the course of 10 years.
“We started with a few baristas. There are now six Deaf baristas. They do everything themselves and manage the entire process,” Goncagül said.
Communication in sign language raises awareness
Goncagül said visitors do not need to know sign language at an advanced level to order coffee and that simply making an effort to communicate is enough.
Goncagül said customers may sometimes make mistakes or feel hesitant, adding that the café experience raises awareness of sign language and Deaf individuals. She said visitors can overcome their preconceptions that “we cannot communicate, we cannot do it” through these interactions.
Goncagül emphasized the importance of increasing the visibility of Deaf individuals in society and said the belief that it is impossible to communicate with Deaf people must be overcome.
Customers on their way to work also choose the café
Goncagül said the café attracts customers who particularly want to order in sign language and practice, adding that some visitors specifically choose Dialogue Café even though there are many workplaces in the area.
Goncagül said many people buy their coffee from the café every morning before going to work. Saying that visitors gain awareness after the experience, Goncagül described the café as a “social laboratory.”
The first Deaf barista
Thirty-three-year-old barista Emre Beyyusufoğlu said he had worked at the museum for 10 years and was the café’s first Deaf barista. Beyyusufoğlu said he had been working at the café for six years and that he was happy when customers placed their orders in sign language.
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