Communication has taken a hit since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. And those who are hard of hearing have been particularly affected as they need visual cues to understand and interact with others. This can have wider effects and some deaf people have reported increased anxiety due to the breakdown in communications.
Tina Lannin is the Director of 121 Captions and also a professional lip reader. She explains how her ability to communicate as a deaf person has been affected because of the use of masks.
"It is very difficult to cope around people wearing masks because you need to see people to be able to understand them. People don’t realise you are actually using your eyes to communicate, and the masks absolutely cut that off completely… It is very important to be open with people and explain to them what they need to do”.
Watch Euronews's full report in the player above.
