At Istanbul cafe, customers learn to order coffee in sign language

Cafe staffed by deaf baristas encourages customers to communicate using simple signs; video menu helps visitors learn signs for different coffee orders

At a cafe inside Istanbul’s Dialogue Museum, customers may need to learn a few signs before ordering their coffee. The Dialogue Cafe, located at Gayrettepe Metro Station, employs six deaf baristas. Its menu uses short videos, illustrations and other visuals to show customers how to sign the coffee they want to order. For first-time visitors, the experience can be unfamiliar. Some hesitate or worry that they will not be understood. But with a little guidance from the staff, a simple exchange is enough to place an order. The cafe opened in 2016. In an interview with Anadolu, museum director Nilay Goncagul said the cafe initially employed hearing staff as well, but the idea of having deaf baristas emerged after several deaf employees became interested in learning how to make coffee. What began with a few employees has since grown into a team of six. They now handle the coffee-making process themselves, while the museum has trained many others in barista skills over the past decade. The experience is deliberately designed to go beyond simply buying a drink. Goncagul said customers sometimes make mistakes or feel shy when trying to sign, but staff members guide them through the process. Some visitors now come specifically to practice sign language, she said, despite the many other cafes in the surrounding business district. For others, the experience challenges an assumption they may arrive with: that communication will be difficult or even impossible. Goncagul said customers do not need advanced sign language skills to order a coffee. What matters is the willingness to make an effort, she said, adding that such interactions can help break down prejudices and raise awareness of both deafness and sign language. She said the cafe also provides a rare opportunity for people outside the deaf community to interact with deaf people in an ordinary, everyday setting. Limited interaction between deaf and hearing people can leave the two communities with little understanding of one another, Goncagul said. By bringing them together over something as routine as a morning coffee, the cafe gives visitors a chance to challenge those assumptions. “The biggest barrier is prejudice. We learn by encountering one another. That is why this place is a social laboratory. There is nothing else like it in Türkiye,” she told Anadolu. For Emre Beyyusufoglu, 33, that interaction has become part of his daily working life. The cafe’s first deaf barista, Beyyusufoglu has worked at the museum for 10 years and at the cafe for six. He said seeing customers make the effort to place their orders in sign language makes him happy, and underscored the importance of the language.