The Great Mask Dilemma: Staying Safe And Communicating While Deaf

Thank you, Elaine Morse, MSW, LICSW, for explaining some unintended consequences of face masks on the D/deaf community and the challenges to sewing a solution .

Elaine Morse smiles for her webcam with some of her creations.

This summer, Columbia University is holding a “ Workshop in Fashion Studies: The Accessible Mask Project .” The course is a collaboration between the ASL and Fashion Studies departments to develop clear mask prototypes and help alleviate the impact mask mandates are having on communication for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It’s a problem Elaine Morse knows all too well. Elaine is a member of the Vermont Association of the Deaf, has a private therapy practice in Vermont that includes adults and children with disabilities, and has an Etsy store (SewCrazyVermont) where she sells her handmade creations. Ever since the CDC first recommended Americans wear cloth face masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Elaine has been posting on Facebook about her struggles to communicate and her efforts to build a better mask. So far, she has added conventional cloth masks with ASL patterns to her Etsy offerings , an ironic role for her, she acknowledges, “Because masks have ruined my life.”

AT3 News and Tips caught up with Elaine to learn more about these communication and maker challenges. If you’re reading this and attending Columbia’s workshop, pay attention! Valuable insights and recommendations follow:

How has the pandemic impacted your quality of life?

At first it was fine. The CDC didn’t recommend masks at all and with the shutdown I transitioned to providing therapy online. That was a pretty easy transition because those of us who are deaf have been using video for a long time and already have the best platform for this (a videophone that we use to make phone calls—you can call another deaf person with the videophone or call a hearing person with an interpreter on the screen).

But everyone else started using Google Meet, which is better for hearing speakers. It is set to show the person speaking and closes out everyone else, so my interpreter disappeared from the screen! I did learn to “freeze” the interpreter on the screen, but this meant I could not see the slides that were being shown. Zoom is a better platform and I have since used this more. I’m told Google Meet now has captions, but I have not yet tried it.

And when everyone started wearing masks?

Once the CDC and the governor recommended masks, life as I knew it pretty much ended. I need to see a person’s entire face and especially their mouth to understand them. Now I have to tell everyone I encounter that I am deaf and I cannot see them with their mask on. If they won’t pull down their masks (and, yes, I back up and leave my mask on), then I have to ask them to write, gesture or I use Otter on my phone (a speech-to-text app that works pretty well).

The...