Read my lips: Loud call for transparent masks

DEHRADUN: When Sandeep Arora was stopped by a policeman at a traffic signal in Bhopal earlier this week, he could barely comprehend what he was saying. Arora, who suffers from hearing loss, was also unable to tell the cop that he was out to buy groceries and, thus, returned home empty-handed. The policeman, like everyone else, had been wearing a face mask.
Masks have emerged as the must-have accessory in the world’s fight against Covid-19 and are mandatory in India, but they are also posing a serious communication problem and increasing the feeling of isolation for 50 lakh citizens like Arora who are deaf or hard of hearing.
People with hearing loss need visual cues and generally lip-read to understand what the speaker is saying. But face masks make it impossible to see how the wearer’s lips are moving, posing a severe limitation for this section of the community. According to the 2011 census, 26.7 lakh men and 23.9 lakh women in the country suffer from some degree of hearing impairment.
There is now a growing demand from the community and disability rights activists for transparent face masks. The National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD) in Dehradun has already produced 50 transparent masks and distributed them among their employees. Nachiketa Raut, director of NIEPVD, told TOI the necessity for transparent masks was felt after older employees of the institute who were hard of hearing complained of having trouble deciphering what others were saying since the mask acted as a barrier.
Samples of the masks will now be sent to Maharashtra-based Ali Yavar Jung National Institute Of Speech And Hearing Disabilities (AYJNISHD), an autonomous research organisation under the department of empowerment for persons with disabilities (Divyangjan), for quality testing.
Vice principal of NIEPVD, Amit Verma, said the masks were made of biopolypropylene — a biodegradable environment-friendly plastic. “We are using a Japan-based technique to develop the masks. The material is a bioplastic derived from plants, in this case, sugarcane.”
Experts said there was an urgent need to scale up production of transparent masks. Similar demands have been made in other countries as well. In the US, a college student at Eastern Kentucky University has designed face masks with a clear screen where the mouth is.
Indranil Chatterjee, secretary, Indian Speech and Hearing Association (ISHA), Mysore, said, “We are collecting feedback from relevant stakeholders so we could put forward a request for transparent face masks before the government.” He added that the delay in production of transparent masks has thrown deaf people into social isolation. And there are several personal narratives to support that.
Narayan Gumkholey, a 63-year-old from Mumbai, recalled how when he went to a bank to withdraw money, he was only able to communicate his request after writing on a piece of paper. “But many times when I have to speak to someone who may not be literate, say a vegetable vendor, I don’t have an alternative.”
Even young children are suffering. Meera Chetan Bhatia, daughter of Suraj Prakash Kanchanbaras, former treasurer of All India Federation for Deaf (AIFD) and captain of Deaf Cricket Team of India, said there are thousands of deaf students and job seekers who are worried about long-term use of face masks becoming a barrier to their communication.
Bhatia, CEO of Sai Swayam Society in Vikaspuri, Delhi, gives online classes to deaf students and said most of them were very anxious and felt cut-off since masks became commonplace, hindering communication.
Ajita Gohain, deputy director of programmes at Vaani Deaf Children Foundation, which is functional across West Bengal, Karnataka and Assam, said transparent masks were essential for two-way communication but no organisations were currently addressing that need.
Director of AYJNISHD, Mumbai, Suni M Mathew, agreed that such masks were required because even for two deaf people to communicate with each other, they need to be able to lip-read and observe facial expressions. “But quality testing is important before we proceed with mass scaling since humidity and feeling of suffocation could be issues,” he said.