Clear masks will help the hearing impaired to read visual cues

Clear masks will help the hearing impaired to read visual cues

Checks./// masks are causing problems for those with hearing impairments who rely on visual cues to understand what is being said to them.

???t news three's kaleb gillock?

Is learning there are masks out there to help with this?

He joins us now?

Kaleb???

Katie and george?

I gave this demonstation tonight at six... but i want to show it again.

With no mask... you can hear me just fine... but once i put a mask on... my voice becomes more muffled causing quite the problem.

The pandemic has caused many problems with people that have a hearing loss.

Doctor amy swain has offices in rochester austin?

Owatonna?

And waseca.

She says people with hearing loss rely on visual cues such as lip reading.

Often times the hearing impaired don't realize they are using those visual cues.

Adding a mask covers the visual aids and also acts as a mute.

The frequencies that it actually muffles are in the higher pitches and that's where most of the information of speech is found?

In those high frequencies.

So when you put that muffled sound on it on top of a hearing loss and they can't see your mouth, they have a very hard time communicating.

That's why the good doctor came up with a clear mask... allowing clients to see what she is saying.

But there's a hold up... unfortunately they're on back order so i don't have the masks here but they're going to be clear so people can see my mouth when i'm talking.

And now, there is another wrinkle to the challenges faced by the hearing impaired.

Quite frankly we've had a lot of people call in during this time that have lost their hearing aids because they take the mask off and that strap hooks the hearing aid and the hearing aid falls out someplace.

So you might want to think about getting a mask that ties in the back rather than looping another danger that doctor swin is worried about is potential covid patients that go into a hospital and won't be able to understand what healthcare workers are saying because of the masks and face shields that they are wearing./// thanks?

Kaleb.

Doctor swain plans to be one of the many no?essential