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. Nac
