I'm deaf. How would you suggest that I do this?

Seriously, I do understand the point you're making, but keep in mind that not everyone is interested in the phone portion of their smartphone, or able to make effective use of it. :)

Are there no TTS gateway apps for the Sidekick/iPhone? I know there's websites that let you type phone conversations.

(Missed this comment earlier)

There are. I'm actually a customer of Sprint IP Relay and have a personal number set up with them that's linked to my Google Talk account. However, making a relay call is generally massively frustrating for the parties on both sides of the line, so I tend to avoid it.

I doubt the restaurant has the time to read the menu to me. I'd much rather just look at it on my phone.

As would I. However, these are restaurateurs we're talking about here. They chop animals and plants with metal implements, cook them over fire and serve them on earthenware. It's not exactly a bleeding-edge-tech industry.

If the worst thing about a restaurant is its website, I'm a happy guy. They'll catch up, but I can't say I blame them for focusing on other things.

But that just negates the reason for having a website in the first place. As a business owner surely they don't want their (and their staff's) valuable time taken up fielding phone calls that could be readily solved by a half decent website. Sure it won't be the preferred method for everyone so you will still get phone calls but the cost/benifit ratio is high.

I've never been a fan of this argument.

1) Sure, its called a phone, but thats just because at some point it was a phone. Now its a phone/browser/weak computer/video game system. The name is almost misleading.

You have a good point that its doesn't make sense to complain "I'm using tool A to do job B for which it wasn't made and it doesn't work" but thats no longer the case for many modern "phones."

2) If the restaurant can get more business by adapting to people who "use their phone incorrectly" then they might as well do that (assuming the cost/benefit works out).

What if I don't know the number? I could maybe find it on the website, assuming I could get there.

Google. Weak restaurant websites can use them as a crutch.