A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

“At the moment you‟re looking at £1170”
Anne is the only customer
My perception of this guy is he‟s good
Not patronising
He is friendly, communicative, listening
Anne fires questions
He outlines options
“End of January we‟ll have the contracts.”
“Take some brochures.”
“We can do you a round- the- world ticket so you can go both ways.”
(l.3:191ff.)
In our discussion later, Anne described her encounter with the sales assistant:
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... interesting... helpful... straightforward... just the way I like it... what else can
I say...he repeated himself when I asked him to... he also pointed out that he had an
email address... he was fine, wasn‟t he... so I‟ll probably go back and book our
flights there on the basis of his service... there‟s really not an awful lot I can say... I
expect other people to get over it fairly quickly and just to get on with it...
(l.3:476ff.)
In this instance, Anne was not disabled as the sales assistant took account of her impairment
and met her needs by communicating clearly. What is illustrated here is that it is neither
necessary nor inevitable that people with impairments will be disabled in every situation they
encounter. Anne was met here with politeness and respect. It is not that she was allowed to
be a deaf person – as if something extra was required of the sales assistant – but that her
deafness was not made an issue.