#lip-reading

Lip-reading is when someone tries to figure out what another person is saying based on the movement and shape of their mouth while they're speaking. There's quite a few myths about lip-reading, particularly around d/Deaf people lip-reading. Today, I'm going to try and correct some of them!

"Lip-reading is easy": lip-reading is actually incredibly difficult, especially if you don't know what the topic of conversation is. Truly, it's mostly just a guessing game. Lip-reading is also a lot harder if someone has an accent you're unfamiliar with, because accents affect the way your mouth moves.

"All d/Deaf people can lip-read (well)": while everyone can lip-read a little bit, except some blind and low-vision people, not everyone can lip-read well. As I said, lip-reading is really hard! And d/Deaf people aren't inherently better at it than hearing people. A lot of d/Deaf people heavily rely on lip-reading when using spoken language, so they get more practice than most hearing people, but not all of us! I don't consciously lip-read at all, even when I'm speaking to other people, so I really struggle lip-reading!

        In cultivating a sense of humor, along with speech reading, I seem to have collected a sack full of funny things which happen to me nearly every day. Shall I shake the sack in hopes that the funniest of all may come to the top? Or shall I shut my eyes and “grab” for one of the funny things from this jolly bag of funnies?       The “Homo Fiend” (see his photograph in the May issue of the Volta Review [ link ]) must always be reckoned with! When he is not “muttering and puttering and buttering his bread” he is sure to be engaged in other performances equally disconcerting. One morning he played a trick on me.       I was feeling unusually virtuous, because the house had religiously been set in order, dishes washed, floors swept, and fragrant soup merrily simmering for the children’s lunch. All this, too, with the unopened pages of the Volta beckoning in a most tantalizing way. Faithfully I attended to “duty first,” then with a happy sigh, was soon lost in the inspiring pages.       It may have been hours, or only a minute, before my nephew appeared in the doorway. I understood him to say something about “soup boiling over.”

ex “The Friendly Corner” in Volta Review “For the Deaf, the Hard of Hearing, and Their Friends” 26:6 (June 1924) : 48 Harvard copy/scan (via google books) : link

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Hello,

speaking more clearly is very helpful for lip-reading folks, but it depends on how you go around it. You should not exxagerate to comical degree, should not cut words into smaller chunks, or make your speech sound unnatural. 

So, careful pronunciation is good, but overexaggerating can be seen as patronising and is actually not helpful - it makes lip-reading harder. 

I can’t really say where your speech falls into without seeing it. The best “material” for lip-reading is to try to voice the word without sound (that way you concentrate more on a lip-shapes), but on the other hand, lot of folks are hard of hearing and need the loud words to understand, so.

The best way to communicate with deaf customers is to respect their communication needs. Follow their cues. If they watch your lips, they are likely lip-reading, if they get out a phone or pen/paper, they want to write, some just want to use gestures, some have hearing enough left to understand if you speak clearly.

Hello,

as I said, communicating via glass when you know the other person is going to be lip-reading is fundamentally different from trying to lip-read a normal conversation. 

I am not saying its impossible to be accurate, but lip-reading is incredibly variable, depends on lot of factors and also requires talent. I know several hearing people who are better at lip-reading than deaf people are.

If you are succesful with it, that’s good. But it doesn’t mean its always a reliable form of communication or that it should be required knowledge and the only way of communicating with deaf people.

Do you ever feel awkward about trying to read someone’s lips and them noticing?

I haaate it, but sometimes rely on lip-reading, especially if it’s loud or there’s too much background noise.

Any tips??

Talking with Silence

Hearing loss doesn’t give people super powers. Hearing loss doesn’t turn people into all-knowing geniuses. And surprisingly, deafness doesn’t allow people do miracles, either. Lip-reading doesn’t work like it does in movies. Most of it is just guessing. Most of the time it’s hard. Really, really hard.

When you speak with a deaf person without the aid of sign language, please try to stay in their field of vision. Don’t raise your voice, don’t cover your mouth, speak normally, just avoid talking too fast and mumbling. Articulate. Use more facial expressions, use your hands, or entire body, create your own sign language, have fun with it. Non-verbal communication is crucial and it can enrich your own life, too. It’s not offensive to take out your phone and write something down to avoid confusion. Try it, try anything. Just give it a chance. Try not to say “it’s not important”, when somebody doesn’t get your meaning immediately. Try not to feel offended when they get something wrong. They are honestly trying their best.