When Rebecca King, who is deaf, pulled up to the drive-thru at her local Starbucks on Monday, the last thing she expected was a barista to communicate with her in sign language.
King, 28, was thrilled when she was able to use sign language to give her order to barista Katie Wyble, 22, at a Starbucks in St. Augustine, Florida, through a new digital video screen set up at the drive-thru. A day later, King went back to get her usual coffee and filmed their sign language exchange in a video that has since been viewed nearly 6 million times on Facebook.
"It is a big deal to (the) deaf community that Starbucks has one now. Nowhere else has that!" King told NBC affiliate WTLV in Jacksonville. "We all want to have that at every drive-thru in the world."
Wyble, who is a communications major at the University of North Florida, told WTLV that she started studying American Sign Language since she was in grade school and continued with it through college. King is a regular customer at the store, so when Wyble saw her on the video monitor, she went right to using sign language.
"I'm glad that there's more awareness for deaf culture and the deaf community,'' Wyble told WTLV. "To see this come to light and actually be a part of it, I feel so blessed."
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