Deaf-Friendly Consulting Clients

We Work With Leading Businesses in Any Industry

Hyatt Regency – Orlando

“In 2022, we hosted the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) 2022 Biennial Conference. We partnered with deaffriendly Consulting to provide service training and guidance to our team at Hyatt Regency Orlando. Echo and Vicki provided a wealth of valuable knowledge for our team. From common sign language communication tips in a hotel environment, to suggestions on enhancements to our operational procedures. It allowed us to create a more inclusive environment for our deaf guests. Our team was engaged in the training and gained skills that they will use far beyond just the NAD conference. Both Vicki and Echo were fantastic facilitators and truly cared about our teams’ development.”

– Mark Havard, Director of Human Resources

Alyssa Burnett Adult Life Center Logo

Alyssa Burnett Adult Life Center – Seattle

“Inspiring, educational, uplifting and so deeply informative.  echo and the team from deaffriendly surpassed all expectations for our teams training. Their approach was incredibly fresh and engaging. It was delivered in such a compelling format, especially in this virtual world we are living in.  As a center committed to providing inclusive and accessible services for adults with developmental disabilities and learners of all abilities, the training shined a light on opportunities for our own process improvement. It inspired our team not only to think about how we can be more inclusive. But also be welcoming to those from the deaf community. From teaching us basic signs, to breaking down myths and inaccurate information we all left feeling better in touch with this community and prepared to integrate the learnings into our daily work. Huge thank you to echo and team for a simply magnificent training!”

– Tammy Mitchell, Director

Deaf-Friendly Consulting Clients

KEXP – Seattle

“Deaf Friendly’s Customer Service training is a must-do for anyone serving the general public. Our facilitator, Vicki, was warm and energetic as she guided us through the training and patiently answered our questions. Staff were immediately engaged. Learning about specific challenges the Deaf community faces that hearing folks take for granted and implementing best practices while interacting with Deaf and hard of hearing guests, as well as practicing basic American Sign Language, we received a number of actionable items we can immediately implement as well as inspiration for ways to plan for better accessibility and inclusivity moving forward. We highly recommend Deaf Friendly for any business.”

– Rischel Granquist, Director of Facility Operations & Guest Services

Deaf-Friendly Consulting Clients

ACT Theatre – Seattle

“The deaffriendly customer service training was invaluable for ACT Theatre. The training was fun, energetic, and interactive. We learned the basics of etiquette, what tools to have available for clear communication in personal interactions and signage, and we learned some basic ASL specific to our business needs. The training helped ACT to be a better partner for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community of patrons. Our staff is even continuing an affinity group to keep their ASL skills up!”

– Becky Whitmer, Director of Operations 

Deaf-Friendly Consulting Clients

National Association of the Deaf – Hartford


“Thanks to deaffriendly’s training, National Association of the Deaf 2018 participants had a positive experience and great interactions with staff throughout the Marriott hotel and the Connecticut Convention Center.”

 – Howard Rosenblum, CEO

Deaf-Friendly Consulting Clients

Hilton Hartford – Hartford

“We are one of the hotels hosting the NAD conference guests in Hartford this month and we wanted to ensure not only we provided all the necessary supplies to have our guests be safe, comfortable and productive during their time here, but also did everything we could to make everyone’s stay really memorable, as well as have fun in our interactions.
With that in mind, we looked for a basic ASL and deaf-friendly service training class for our team, and chose “deaffriendly”. Our trainer, Rachel Berman, really exceeded my expectations. Her level of preparedness, training material provided, teaching skills, and creating a personal connection with her students (our hotel teams) were exceptional.
The workshop included bilingual instruction sheets (deaf-friendly tips for hotels) and a superb quiz, fun group exercises, as well as an interactive ASL training session. Through sharing some of her past experiences (with a sense of humor), Rachel also managed to raise our level of understanding and empathy for deaf people’s daily experiences and obstacles.
My team and I feel we are much better hosts to our deaf guests today because of the training we received from Rachel and deaffriendly.”

– Ali Dezfoli, Director of Operations

5th Ave Theatre – Seattle

“deaffriendly was an essential part of our organization’s efforts to refine and improve our accessibility and become more inclusive of Deaf culture.
In our production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a Deaf actor worked as our lead role Quasimodo.
We took this opportunity to make goals for greater accessibility on and off stage. From our first communication echo was extremely helpful and informative about what we should expect from the trainings – of which we had two. Both training sessions were educational and we found Guthrie and Vicki to be engaging and approachable.
They made what could have been a daunting experience comfortable for our company members and for our staff. Many guests commented on the success of our accessibility efforts – all of which were implemented because of our work with deaffriendly.
We believe that every organization can and should consider how they can be more welcoming and inclusive of Deaf and hard of hearing culture. If you have these goals, deaffriendly should be your first call.”

– Tim Gonzalez-Willer, Director of Guest Services

A group of hotel employees stand and smile at the camera-

Provenance Hotels | Hotel Lucia and Sentinel – Portland

“In 16 years of managing high – end lifestyle hotels all over the country I have never had anyone ask for an ADA kit until recently. While we have the requisite number of kits on hand, we were ill – prepared to honor this request and after several failed attempts were unsuccessful in managing this very reasonable request.

It would have been easy for this guest to get angry and frustrated but instead, she let us know about this great organization that brings awareness to deaf – friendly businesses and, in our case, constructive feedback on how we can better serve the deaf and hard of hearing community. That guest was Melissa “echo” Greenlee and the organization she started is deaffriendly.com.
Melissa and her team worked with two of our hotels in Portland to create a more inclusive Guest Experience by providing us with the training and awareness necessary to become a more deaf friendly business. The training they provided was fantastic and the feedback we received from our managers was outstanding.
It was delivered in a professional, approachable manner and we were made to feel at ease.”

– Christopher Bebo, Regional General Manager

Deaf-Friendly Consulting Clients

Rachel’s Ginger Beer – Seattle

“The training that deaffriendly provided was engaging, useful, and well-designed. Our staff were excited for the opportunity to communicate better with our Deaf customers, and our business has already seen the benefits of being more accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing community.”

– Doh Driver, Operations Manager