Customers are rude no matter what. Most will understand if the person just says something like, I am having trouble with my “left” ear, I am going to turn my head to try to hear you better, but I am definitely listening to your concerns. That will make most customers a little more willing to work with the worker. But there will always be some who are just mean or impatient or whatever, who will not care if the employee has a disability or not, they are going to take out their anger on the employee. The best response to these is to work hard on customer service skills of letting angry people vent without escalating, and then giving them what they want. After all, most places do have the employees train that “the customer is always right.”

And yes, it is wrong for people to be rude to those with disabilities. But it isn’t going to go away soon. The best way to help is to inform, teach whole communities at a time. The more disabled there are out in the community, the more people will come in contact with them, and over time, they will be seen as people, and not “the disabled.”