Mistreating people because of their disability is not okay, but it still happens.

In this story it happened at a restaurant.

For this person with two disabilities, enough was enough.

See how he got back at this server who wronged him.

As a person who struggles with vision and hearing due to serious illness, I had no problem with being a jerk to that jerk behind the counter at Chipotle.

I lost most of my hearing because of a brain tumor.

I also have a genetic condition which leads to worsening vision across the lifespan and I am now entering the advanced stages at 30 years old.

It’s not easy for me to navigate society.

I bump into things, I need to be super close to read stuff, and I need people to speak up.

But that’s not the only reason being disabled is hard for him.

I walked into Chipotle 2 months ago since my stomach was feeling really good.

I go in and see some notes on their menu, written on a sheet of paper.

I ask the guy behind the counter what it said and he sighs, tills his head to the side, and says, “You can’t read or something?”

I said I was visually impaired as calmly and as short as I could.

He tells me that they are out of steak and chicken.

I didn’t understand him at first so I asked if he could say it again as I have hearing problems and he borderline yells at me.

There was nobody else in the shop but me.

We go down the line, I pick my stuff and get to the end.

He says something to me and I couldn’t quite understand him.

I asked him patiently to repeat and he looks at his coworker shaking his head, while his coworker looked at him all confused.

He does it again: “Dude, go get some new ears, I said you have to swipe your card, the chip doesn’t work.”

The server is about to pay for his behavior.

“Okay, how much is it.” I ask. “$17.87” he responds, or something like that.

I then tell him, “Okay great, take this $17.87 worth of food and go drown yourself with it.”

I walked away out the door and he starts yelling at me to come back and pay for it.

I respond by saying, “I can’t hear you dude.”

Before I lost so much of my vision and hearing, I myself worked in food service.

There was absolutely ZERO need to be a jerk that night.

He didn’t have to speak up that much more.

I am not legally deaf.

And what I was asking was really not a big deal considering what other people do.

I was nice and tried my best.

As a person of disability, ignorance and discrimination are to me the literal worst parts about being disabled.

Society would rather decide where you can and cannot exist amongst those around you instead of integrate with you and allow you to share with others your own contributions.

Here is what folks are saying.

That’s what I would do.

Get some free food and hold that server accountable.

If you don’t have the patience for disabled people, don’t work in customer service.

This would be good to share in a feedback form. The built environment needs to be inclusive.

It’s great to support small businesses, but I’m sure ableism is rampant everywhere.

I would have handled this differently.

Dine and dashing changes nothing.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.