Chichester Student Petitions Government For See-Through Face Coverings

Friday, 17 July 2020 22:52

By John Warburton @Warblefly

Example of partially-transparent face-covering (Image supplied by George Simpson)

A student at the University of Chichester has begun a campaign asking the government to make transparent face-coverings widely available.

In his introduction to the campaign, George Simpson, who's the student union's disabilities officer, said they'll help people who lip-read or use sign language.

According to George, the traditional opaque covering prevents a person being spoken-to from seeing facial expressions and emotions, which can make up more than half of the meaning of anything being said.

He's also pointed out that people who are deaf, and who use British Sign Language (BSL), are put at a disadvantage because an important part of BSL is the speaker's facial expression.

And, for lip-readers, comprehension is impossible.

The consequences of miscommunication can lead to serious problems, including medical errors occuring in the social and health sectors.

A face-covering with a clear window for the mouth can help avoid all these problems, George said.

Additionally, the extra isolation that a deaf person may face, through being unable to see facial expressions or lip-read, could be detrimental to mental health by bringing about feelings of isolation leading to depression.

George said:

"As a person who works in the social care sector, I have to do some personal care and the majority of the time it requires two or more people to do the task.

"With normal disposable face masks, it is common for miscommunication throughout the workplace and this could have profound impacts on the people we care for.

"However, I cannot stress enough how important these masks can be for everyone in different environments and not just for those who have hard of hearing.

"Having clear face masks available to use will make workplaces safer and will reduce barriers of communication caused by traditional masks."

At the time of writing (July 17), the petition had secured over 2,200 signatures.

https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-clear-face-masks-for-hard-of-hearing-individuals