Masks make deaf people inconvenient

When Brisbane was placed into lockdown on Monday 29th March night and people across the city masked up, teacher Amanda Sterling, who is deaf, braced herself for the communication headaches to come.

For people who are deaf or hard or hearing, face masks can be a literal barrier to communication, concealing the facial expressions and movements that Auslan users and lip-readers rely on.

“Everywhere we go presently is more stressful than normal — normal being difficult anyway — because we can’t see people’s faces,” Ms Sterling, who lip-reads, said.

Learning to adapt

COVID-19 is not going away and neither are the vital measures — like masks — that protect the community from contracting the virus.

Brett Casey is the chief executive of Deaf Services and the Deaf Society and said, now with a few lockdowns under the belt, the deaf community was learning to adapt, but it was not without its challenges. 

Deaf Services have released a number of graphics that can be downloaded to a phone and used to communicate quickly with people, whether that’s asking someone to pull down their mask to see their mouth or communicating they are deaf. 

Clear masks ‘would help’

Ms Sterling would like to see clear masks become more widely available and used by people working in customer service.

Despite the difficulties that come with masks, Mr Casey said the PPE was essential to community safety.

“Yes, wearing masks is an additional barrier but I think that it’s also important to know and be aware that wearing masks can save lives. So deaf people are on board to make sure that we keep Australia and our communities safe.”