Tim Reedy: Working as an expert forensic lipreader (BSL)

My name is Tim Reedy and I am an expert forensic lipreader. This means I can lipread video camera footage without sound and create a transcript for my clients. I have done this for over twenty-five years now, although for the last year I chose this as my full-time career path. I have a website https://www.elitelipreader.com and an Apple iMac to lipread any footage without sound.

Here is some trivia: I am the first-ever expert forensic lipreader in Australian legal history to have a transcript accepted as credible evidence by a judge. I am not sure how many deaf people know this, but that is the truth. I was the expert forensic lipreader at a trial that made world news in December 2023. I flew to Sydney, Australia to testify at the Bruce Lehrmann trial. I was hounded by photojournalists and news cameras when I left the courthouse. I featured on the Australian television news; I was in the Australian newspapers; I was discussed on Australian news podcasts and after the case my name was trending on Twitter for many hours.

Google the words, ‘Tim Reedy Lipreader’ and you will see a captioned news report on YouTube.

I use an Apple iMac for forensic lipreading because the colour resolution and pixellation is sharp. The huge screen is a great help with close-ups. I work funny hours. Forensic lipreading is not a 9-5 job. This time last month, I was woken at 12am by an Australian news channel to lipread some sports footage without sound and provide a transcript for 3am. It is very important that you can work quickly because your reputation and credibility matters a lot if you claim to be an expert forensic lipreader.

I have also accepted forensic lipreading assignments for other clients such as international newspapers (for the celebrity gossip); the Football Association; international news channels; law enforcement; law firms; tracheostomy patients in hospital (patients who have had a surgical procedure that creates an opening in the neck to insert a tube into the windpipe—which means that although they can breathe, they cannot use their voicebox/communicating only by moving their lips). And I am the Ambassador for the Association of Lipspeakers

In the 1970s, I was born hearing and grew up with a hearing family, until I lost my hearing to meningitis aged four. I wore a hearing aid and attended speech therapy sessions. At the same time, I was learning to lipread. Doctors had informed parents that deaf children learning sign language would have bad speech. This was standard advice doctors passed on to parents. Hearing children who lost their hearing were also encouraged not to get involved with deaf culture. 

I did not experience deaf culture until I was eleven years old as a pupil at Mary Hare Grammar School. Before that, I had attended mainstream primary school with other hearing children and I had a lot of hearing friends. I had grown up with them, so it was only natural I lived in a ‘hearing environment’ that involved a lot of lipreading. I lipread and communicate orally every day. My partner Kate is hearing. I know more hearing people than deaf people. Sometimes I do wish it were the other way round because lipreading is tiring, especially at evening parties where it gets dark and therefore impossible to follow anyone. 

As a lipreading professional, I book lipspeakers for all professional events (for example, seminars, discussions and my court testimony in Sydney, Australia). I have used them over the last twenty-five years in various workplaces. Meanwhile, I believe BSL is a wonderful language and I am pleased deaf charities have made a lot of progress promoting deaf culture and providing many opportunities for deaf people. I did learn BSL ten years ago and I passed my level two. Perhaps it is now time to tackle level three?