"In other restaurants you'll see employees signing to each other, since we also hire many deaf men and women"
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A fast-food founder casually normalizing deaf workers is the kind of sentence that lands two ways at once: as plainspoken pride and as quiet provocation. Karcher isn’t pitching a grand philosophy; he’s selling an atmosphere. “In other restaurants” draws a line between the ordinary and his chosen version of the future, where difference is not a liability to be managed backstage but a visible, everyday feature of the dining room. The detail about “signing to each other” matters because it’s sensory and public. It invites the customer to notice, and then to recalibrate what “professional” looks like.
The intent is also competitive. Karcher frames inclusive hiring as a distinguishing characteristic, part of the brand’s operating identity rather than a charitable add-on. That’s shrewd: it turns employment practice into customer-facing narrative. The subtext is a rebuttal to a common assumption in service work-that speed, communication, and uniformity require a narrow definition of who can do the job. By pointing to sign language as something you might “see,” he implies competence is already on display.
Context sharpens the stakes. Karcher’s career tracks the rise of postwar American franchising, a world built on standardization. Inclusion inside that machine reads as both moral choice and managerial confidence: he’s saying the system is strong enough to accommodate, even benefit from, workers whom other employers overlook. It’s a small line with big cultural leverage, because it treats accessibility not as a special project but as normal business.
The intent is also competitive. Karcher frames inclusive hiring as a distinguishing characteristic, part of the brand’s operating identity rather than a charitable add-on. That’s shrewd: it turns employment practice into customer-facing narrative. The subtext is a rebuttal to a common assumption in service work-that speed, communication, and uniformity require a narrow definition of who can do the job. By pointing to sign language as something you might “see,” he implies competence is already on display.
Context sharpens the stakes. Karcher’s career tracks the rise of postwar American franchising, a world built on standardization. Inclusion inside that machine reads as both moral choice and managerial confidence: he’s saying the system is strong enough to accommodate, even benefit from, workers whom other employers overlook. It’s a small line with big cultural leverage, because it treats accessibility not as a special project but as normal business.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
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