Collected Item: “Do face masks make it more difficult to communicate?”
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Do face masks make it more difficult to communicate?
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News Article
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As someone who is Hard of Hearing, I worry about returning to work in the fall. I never realized how much I rely on lip and expression reading before now. With masks and zoom meetings I struggle to understand conversations that normally would be simple. I have hearing aids but unfortunately they do not help much when context clues are deprived. Soft spoken, mumblers, low voices are all drowned out into the background. I search peoples eyes for clues, are they laughing? Are they concerned? In my Deaf and HoH support group the threads are now saturated with frustrated people just venting. Something as simple as a trip to the grocery store now requires a pad and pencil while pointing to the ears repeating, "I cant hear you. Let me write it down. I am Hard of Hearing/Deaf. Sorry. Sorry." While people behind you get irritated. I have thought about getting a neon shirt to wear at the store with the words, "I am Hard of Hearing, I can't hear you!"
In zoom meetings I can see peoples faces. It provides context I miss so much. But I have low-frequency hearing loss so the voices of men are blurry at best. Arizona State University has a fantastic disability resource center and they have started providing me with a captioner who attends classes with me and transcribes for me live. I don't always need her but it has been nice not having to message classmates through a class to ask what was missed.
This is a new world for many deaf/Deaf/HoH who are my age. We have always had ways to work around our disability. Now masks and technology are depriving us of coping skills we relied on.
In zoom meetings I can see peoples faces. It provides context I miss so much. But I have low-frequency hearing loss so the voices of men are blurry at best. Arizona State University has a fantastic disability resource center and they have started providing me with a captioner who attends classes with me and transcribes for me live. I don't always need her but it has been nice not having to message classmates through a class to ask what was missed.
This is a new world for many deaf/Deaf/HoH who are my age. We have always had ways to work around our disability. Now masks and technology are depriving us of coping skills we relied on.
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#ASU, HST580, Deaf, deaf, HoH, ASL, deaf community, disability, challenge, hearing aids
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https://www.sidneyherald.com/news/coronavirus/do-face-masks-make-conversations-more-difficult/article_a1722afe-abf8-11ea-b120-13dbf94a3eab.html?fbclid=IwAR01ZWnqL0ScTLmMY8aLR_YBuKBXA8DJjlvjsjokKQRQ0_rNEAkFP9nSRW8
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Sidney Herald, Tieheena Lemerond
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2020-06-13