What else can you do if you can barely hear people but to read their lips for clues? However, now that wearing face masks is necessary to ensure safety, the deaf can no longer keep their secrets. Their impairment has become obvious and yet, solutions to their problem remain at bay.
Transparent masks seem to be promising but data show that they aren’t much help either. The lips are still obscured, and the hearing impaired can only hear muffled sounds at best. This issue has been forcing deaf people to reveal their problems and seek help, proven by an increase in appointments of specialists; SIVUH’s Chief Audiologist Shane McMahon, for example.
The same increase in visits was observed in the US. Experts believe that these people have already been adapting to the world despite their impairment. However, their means of adapting through lip-reading has been taken which prevents them from delaying the search for professional help.
Hearing impairment patients attest that their hearing aids are simply insufficient. A combination of visual cues and sounds is what helps them hear. Indeed, it’s true what they say, “I can’t hear… without my glasses”.