Starbucks’ first US Signing Store in Washington, DC wins praise

Starbucks’ first U.S. Signing Store opened on H Street NE in Washington, DC, with every employee fluent in American Sign Language and customers ordering on a tablet instead of at a standard register. The store at 625B H Street NE, near Gallaudet University, quickly drew praise because accessibility there is built into the work itself: the handoff, the communication, and the staffing all run differently from a typical Starbucks.

The company opened the store on October 23, 2018, as a direct extension of a signing concept it had already tested in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where a Signing Store opened in 2016 with nine Deaf partners. Starbucks said the Washington location was shaped with input from Deaf partners and allies through its Accessibility office and Access Alliance partner network, and the store was staffed by a diverse team of deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing employees fluent in ASL.

That setup changed how the store operated on the floor. Customers could place orders through a tablet and communicate in sign language, which made the café work more like a shared visual workspace than a conventional loud, register-driven shop. For Starbucks, the model also changed hiring and training by making ASL fluency part of the job, not an accommodation layered on top of service.

Gallaudet University, the nation’s leading university for deaf and hard of hearing students, later described the store as a popular destination for students, alumni and visitors. The university also noted that the Signing Starbucks had a deaf manager and deaf and signing staff, underscoring how the store moved beyond symbolism and into day-to-day management and customer service.

Starbucks has since treated the DC store as more than a one-off. In 2024, the company said the Signing Store model helped inform its Inclusive Spaces Framework for new U.S. stores, and it identified a Washington, DC location as the first built under that framework. The newer design features included optimized acoustics, power-operated doors and improved features for customers with low vision.

By 2025, Starbucks said it had 23 Signing Coffeehouses globally. For other stores, the most replicable pieces are clear: recruit for ASL fluency, use ordering tools that reduce pressure at the counter, and design the floor around access from the start rather than after complaints begin.