Twenty eight disabled persons, deaf and mute have been offered employment in a hotpot restaurant located in Minhang District, Shanghai. The newly opened restaurant chain named "Liuyishou", is cooperating with the Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation, the only recruitment center for deaf-mutes in the city.

Deaf-mutes account for nearly half of the restaurant's employees, according to manager Zhang Tiansong. Most are waiters and waitresses who usually need to "talk" to customers.

However, there are alternatives to verbal communication in Liuyishou. A service pager with various buttons, for example, sits at each table. When customers want to order or pay the bill, they can communicate to the waiter electronically, through the pager. When all else fails, there's always the old standby, of handwritten notes.

"I don't sense any difference between the disabled waiters and others," said a customer surnamed Pan. "They seem to be more considerate and often help to replace our used plates with clean ones or add more water to the pot before we ask." The waiters all carry memo books, so they can check to make sure they have taken the order correctly.

The manager said all the employees, healthy or disabled are paid the same. Disabled employee are provided meals, and, if necessary even accommodation.

Companies and institutions hiring the disabled can enjoy a tax waiver of up to 350,000 yuan per person, and there also are additional bonuses, under a policy of the Shanghai municipal government. The number of interns or employment base for the disabled in Shanghai, including Liuyishou, increased to 13 by last year.

"The restaurant definitely spends more for the training and management of the disabled, especially deaf and mute employees who have no previous experiences," said Zhang. "We don't do this to seek novelty or sympathy but to help them better engage in society through their hard work," said Zhang.

(HK Edition 08/31/2012 page4)