Only a quarter of UK adults know how to communicate with deaf people whilst wearing a face mask, a YouGov survey has found.
The poll of more than 2,000 people, commissioned by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), also revealed that 89% struggle to understand someone in a face mask – a figure which the charity says shows the problem “is far from unique to deaf people”.
Responding to the findings, NDCS have said that “months of face mask misery” lies ahead for deaf people.
Susan Daniels OBE, Chief Executive, said: “These results will be very concerning for the UK’s 12 million deaf adults and 50,000 deaf children.
“Face masks and coverings have made lip reading impossible and if people don’t know how else to talk to us, even everyday events like going to work or school, visiting shops and taking public transport can be quite intimidating.
“However, what the public lack in knowledge they are making up for in enthusiasm and we must capitalise on this.”
It comes after the research goes on to reveal that over 80% said they would change their behaviour if it helped a deaf person.
The charity is now urging the public to read its tips for communicating with deaf people while wearing face masks, which include wearing ones with transparent windows to aid lipreading, writing messages down and having conversations in a quiet place.
They also call on Government and businesses to publicise the advice, with the increased awareness making “a huge difference” to the lives of deaf people.
James Watson-O’Neill, Chief Executive of the deaf health charity SignHealth, added: “We’d ask everyone not just to read these tips, but to use them whenever they speak to a deaf person. It really will make all the difference.”
The poll follows another survey from NDCS, which found that one in four teachers were wearing face masks in the classroom, despite Government guidance saying doing so isn’t recommended or necessary.
Earlier this year, research by the social enterprise Ideas for Ears revealed that almost 90% of those surveyed who had a hearing loss had experienced difficulties as a result of face coverings.
NDCS’ infographic on communicating while wearing face coverings is available to view on their website.
By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.
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Fred Trull
November 20, 2020
Once again we see a misleading use of statistics by a deaf charity.
“Only a quarter of hearing people know how to communicate with deaf people using a face mask” hides the fact that hardly anyone knows how to communicate with deaf people even >withoutany type of hearing impairment<. That would include 40% with tinnitus and thousands of children with glue ear.
As for 50,000 deaf children, well the Government in the shape of Mr Nick Gibb (Minister of State for School Standards) has said there are 40,000. Out of those at least 20,000 and rising are being educated in hearing schools with specialist support. The Government has stated its intention to increase this number in the future.
A little bit of accuracy from those who claim to represent us would be a very nice thing.
Deaf, not daft. Remember that.
Hartmut
November 20, 2020
The statistics on deafness are always extrapolated estimates rounded upward to whole 1,000 or often to whole 10,000. SO don’t pay attention to them, idiots. The best estimate is gotten from the rate 0.2 per 100 or twenty per 1000 of the general population. It is determined by the census of Deaf people in the US conducted by the Us-National Association of the Deaf in 1980. The rate is how many Deaf/hard of Hearing hears badly enough to rely and are using sign language for communication. It is more acceptable given the school population that are determined pretty easily from the number of deaf kids served in any program for deaf children, which is often given as 0.1 % of the school population. Fazit: it is more accurate, when you use this rate 0f 2/1000 of the whole population.
It should not surprise at all that 95% of the population are hearing and most of them don’t know how to adjust to communicate with deaf people. This without wearing a mask! While wearing one, they get a bit more conscious of communication difficulties using oral/vocal means. My hearing daughter-in-law who is a nurse in a big hospital remarked that they found out they have been lipreading all along without knowing it, and with the mask on they realized the difficulty understanding each other and thus speak louder. I knew about this fact all the time from several studies. One of which is ancient but still valid from the 1950’s which showed no difference in lipreading accuracy between random group of hearing people and the best deaf lipreaders from oral schools. Also I found out, late deafened people are better lipreaders than deaf graduates from oral deaf schools. Just that you need to know the spoken language well enough in order to lipread. More hospitals are now ordering masks with a window across the lips.