Two coffee shop chains in Indonesia are giving deaf people the chance to demonstrate their capabilities in the workplace.

Intrigued by stories about cafes manned by industrious deaf workers, I went to two of these outlets — Kopi Tuli (Kedai Koptul) and Deaf Fingertalk Café, both in Jakarta.

These outlets set themselves apart by empowering deaf staff members and educating the public on the issue of their inclusion in the workplace.

Established by Putri Santoso in May 2018, Kedai Koptul has two outlets in Greater Jakarta. Deaf Fingertalk Café, meanwhile, was founded by Dissa Syakina Ahdanisa in May 2016 and runs two outlets in Greater Jakarta and one in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

Walk into one of these outlets and you will find a community that helps you understand how deaf people communicate in the workplace. Contrary to stereotypes, you don’t have to be well-versed in sign language or helped by interpreters to communicate with their staff. 

I learned this when I entered Kedai Koptul on Jl. Duren Tiga, South Jakarta. I was greeted by a woman named Aldilla who can communicate verbally albeit with limited articulation.

To make your verbal expression understood well by your deaf friends, you have to elongate your words and accentuate your lip movements so that he or she will comprehend what you are saying. I remembered this principle and ordered kopi alpukat (avocado coffee) verbally that way.

To help enhance your verbal communication with the café’s deaf staffers, they place a menu display in front of the cashier featuring the kinds of beverages that the café offers complemented with visual codes and cues on how to convey these codes using sign language. If you are not sure yet on how to express the sign code clearly, you can simply point at the picture of the beverage you want at the display and the cashier will order it for you.

How can I help? Fitri Nurul Andryani (right), a deaf waitress at Deaf Café Fingertalk in Pamulang, Banten, South Tangerang, communicates with customers using a mixture of limited verbal communication and nonverbal expressions. Similar to Koptul café, this café is also staffed entirely by deaf people. (JP/P.J. Leo)

I also benefited from the display to aid my communication. When Aldilla asked me verbally whether I would like to have my coffee hot or cold, I pointed at the word dingin (cold). 

Ardilla confirmed my order once again — cold avocado coffee, that is — complementing her speech by pointing at the display to make sure she got my order right before confirming the beverage’s price while pointing at the numbers shown on the cash register.

Despite her limited articulation, her verbal expression was easily understood if you listened carefully; the way she complemented her speech with nonverbal communication helped smoothen the dialogue. Transaction complete.

Then, Aldilla told her barista colleagues what type of beverage or coffee to make using sign language, sometimes enhanced with some verbal instructions. A few minutes later, she brought me the avocado coffee.

The beverage was served in a cup over which a simple A to Z sign language manual is emblazoned. Interested customers are welcome to learn further about how to construct words and sentences based on the manual with the help of the café’s staffers if they are not busy with their tasks.

This explains why loyal guests have been able to use sign language to communicate with staffers more fluently after they have visited the café several times. I observed a man who learned sign language while he sipped his avocado coffee. The coffee tasted great; it has a bittersweet nuance featuring a caramel-soft taste that blends with avocado’s bitter and creamy flavor.

Spending time enjoying the cappuccino inside Deaf Fingertalk’s branch in Pamulang, South Tangerang, also helped me become more familiar with how deaf people communicate in the workplace. Deaf Fingertalk’s carwash outlets, entirely staffed by deaf people, also enhance this understanding.

After spending time in these two outlets, I become aware that in terms of functioning in the workplace, deaf people can accomplish their tasks just as effectively as their friends with normal hearing. 

Drinking while learning: Koptul café’s plastic cups contain a simple A to Z sign language chart for customers to study. Customers can also learn how to use these signs to form words and sentences with the café’s employees during the latter’s downtime. (Courtesy of Sedap Films)

They practice different communication, which you can also easily absorb after you spend some time interacting with them.

Unfortunately, our corporate sector is still prejudiced against deaf people and differently-abled (diffable) individuals in general, as if their different way of thinking and communicating can hamper the workflow in these organizations.

Putri, a 28-year-old who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in visual communications design, established the café with her two deaf friends after her job applications to work as a graphic designer had been rejected by various companies over several years. Then they employed staffers who likewise also found their efforts to find jobs in the corporate sector fruitless.

They were not alone, apparently. In 2018, the Manpower Ministry revealed that 4 percent of 11 million diffable individuals of working age in Indonesia were still jobless. The ministry requires state-owned enterprises to reserve 2 percent of its total workforce for diffable individuals; for private enterprises, the slot should constitute 1 percent of their workforce.

To help advocate for these people’s rights to get a job, Indonesian filmmaker Chairun ‘Ilun’ Nissa directed a documentary about Koptul café titled Rumah Siput (a double entendre referring to “Putri’s House” and the cochlea, an essential part of our ears).

Dissa, meanwhile, said she was inspired to establish her café after observing a similar outlet run entirely by deaf people in Nicaragua. Her hard work was recognized by former United States president Barack Obama during an event in Luang Prabang, Laos, in September 2016.  

Just visit one of these café outlets and you will witness by yourself that deaf people are equally as capable, effective and efficient in supporting their businesses’ day-to-day operations as people who are able to hear, while getting a chance to acquire a different way of thinking and communicating.