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I'm a Lip Reader

Deaf Awareness Month
I'm a lip reader 💋

A great lip reader can make it look effortless! I'm often told by people, they forget I'm deaf because I appear to keep up with conversations easily!

But the truth is,
it isn’t natural.
It’s a skill, and an exhausting one.

It can be learned and fine-tuned over time, but it doesn’t replace hearing.

It’s an extra.
An extra layer of effort.
An extra demand on my attention.
An extra task on top of everything else.

What many don’t see is how draining it can be. Lipreading means constant focus, scanning faces, filling in the blanks, and staying diligent every second of the conversation.

It can feel like running a marathon with your brain and your eyes, even during what looks like a simple social chat over coffee.

The modern fad for men to have beards often gets in our way of lip reading. As does the habit of looking elsewhere while talking, (often down at your phone or people watching).

Or, like my better half, who even after 20 years, still waves her hands around in front of her face while talking (I don't blame her really, it's not entirely in her control, she is of Italian🇮🇹 heritage, and the Mediterranean people use an awful lot of hand gestures while talking)! At the very least it's distracting, at worst it blocks out your face, so we can't see what your saying!

So if someone tells you they’re tired after lipreading, please believe them!

They’re not being dramatic, they’re carrying the hidden weight of listening in a way most people never have to think about.

Thank you for reading this far. I hope I've given you food for thought. Next time we meet, I look forwards to being able to lip read you better!
Coffee anybody ☕

#deafandproud #deafawarenessmonth #deaf #disability
#lipreading

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