Masking a Deaf Person in a Hearing World

I was diagnosed with a severe hearing loss as a young child. The process of which lead to a challenge to my self-worth and confidence. I thank God every day for the strength I had to believe wholly and completely in my value as a person regardless of what others were saying about me or to me.

After trying hearing aids as a child for what seemed a miserable eternity, I chose not to aid my hearing loss. As a child, aiding was very difficult and emotionally painful. Now, as an adult, I still am not aided. Not because I think hearing aids are wrong but because after several attempts to train my brain to accept the help, it refuses.

Those who know me may not even know I have a loss unless I have told you. This is because over my life I have learned to “hear” using other tools. Such as body language, lip reading, problem solving via context, and gathering clues in every possible way to form a foundation upon which I can decipher what is being said to me without hearing most of the sounds.

This brings me to the most resent challenge; mask wearing per the Covid-19 pandemic. There are so many grievances I wish to touch it is nearly impossible to slow my mind enough to line them up, making sure each one gets the proper voice.

First the obvious. Masking covers the other person’s mouth, therefore eliminating any chance I might have to read their lips. This also blocks their voice so the low frequencies that I do have in my range of hearing are made obsolete.

You are probably thinking, “Wait, you said you have a whole bucket full of tricks to help you hear. Why not use something other than lip reading?”

You’re right, I do have more tricks but in order to be effective I have to use them all together. Think about a crime scene investigator. They have many tools to help them discover what they are looking at, but they need to use all of them to be effective. Using only one tool would give them lopsided information that would be all but useless in the end.

The other side of this slippery slope is that even if you take off your mask, but I have to wear one, I can hear you, but I cannot communicate myself. Hearing loss affects the ability to hear one’s own voice as well. Even in the best circumstances I struggle forming words and sounds so that they are perfectly clear. I can do it to a certain degree sure, but I have to be given the opportunity to hear my own voice to make this work. With a mask over my mouth that opportunity is voided. So, this makes clear masks of no help. They still block frequency.

Another thing you may be saying if you have spoken to me in person or have heard me speak is that I seem to be doing fine, that I communicate well enough and I always seem to know what has been said and respond appropriately. That is because I work really hard to “hear.” The world comes at me and I put it through the best filter I can and then I respond.

There are a lot of times when that filter isn’t up for the task and I simply guess. I am a really good guesser. There are also backups like just nod and smile. That usually works for anything I have missed.

Masks may make you feel safer and my ability to do my best to participate keeps you from feeling burdened, but the reality is that I can’t hear you when you have a mask on, and I can’t communicate when I have a mask on.

Think about it like this. Imagine I put a blind fold on you and asked you to go about your day, claiming that because I can see, you should be fine.

I implore you to think about those around you who are required to put in more than the average amount of work to do average things, such as hearing. And if you see someone without a mask don’t assume, they are a foolish person who doesn’t care about the health of those around them, instead, open your mind to the possibility that they are just trying to participate.