More awareness needed around face covering exemptions to help lipreaders, says charity

Margaret Field (58) cares for her husband and her son who is autistic. She cannot avoid going into public places to carry out weekly tasks such as shopping.

She said: “Going into a shop is just horrendous at the minute, especially if staff have a screen and a mask at the same time.

“I’ve struggled and I’ve been shouted at.

“I went to a supermarket once; I’d finished my shopping so I started putting my items on the belt as it was clear.

“The lady on the till started shouting at me and I couldn’t hear what she was saying. I stepped forward and said ‘pardon?’ and she almost had a fit - apparently she had been telling me to wait on the white line.

“I said ‘I’m sorry, I’m deaf; I can’t hear what you’re saying to me’ but she just looked at me in disgust. I was absolutely mortified; it was very stressful and humiliating.”

Margaret uses two hearing aids and, like many people with hearing loss, she relies on lipreading.

She added: “If someone is behind a screen and they’re not wearing a mask then I have more chance of reading their lips and understanding what they’re saying.

“A lot of the time it’s pure guesswork; if they’re wearing a mask behind a screen and there’s background noise I have absolutely no mission of hearing what they’re saying. It makes me feel very vulnerable.

“It’s a strange thing for everybody, but I think a lot of people are forgotten about at the moment; people seem to be a lot harsher and more judgemental.

“People are afraid and out of character. It’s a difficult time for everyone, but staff need to realise that people might not be stupid or awkward, they might genuinely not be able to hear you.”

Exemptions for not wearing a face covering include travelling with, or providing assistance to someone who relies on lipreading to communicate.

A person is also exempt from wearing a facemask if doing so would cause them significant distress, or if they have a disability which means they cannot put on, wear, or remove a face covering.

Lipreading Awareness Week runs from September 14 to September 19 and charity Action on Hearing Loss is highlighting the communication barriers that exist for one in six of the population, and encouraging the general public to be aware of face covering exemptions and how they apply to people with deafness and hearing loss.

Claire Lavery, Director at Action on Hearing Loss Northern Ireland, said: “People should be aware of the exemptions that apply where face coverings are mandatory and how these exemptions apply to people who are deaf or have hearing loss.

“If someone who is deaf or has hearing loss asks you to step back and remove your face covering to communicate with them you wouldn’t be acting illegally in doing so, though many are unaware of that.”

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