SARASOTA (WSNN) – “Our sole purpose is to meet the linguistic needs of these people and when it’s impossible, it’s very frustrating,” Charlene McCarthy said.
VisCom Interpreting Services president, Charlene McCarthy, is a nationally certified interpreter.
Sarasota resident, Daniel Goldberg, is a deaf person who lost his hearing at 3-years-old. He says it’s frustrating to communicate with others as it is, but it’s even more so now with the pandemic.
“Everybody is walking around with masks on and it’s impossible to read their lips,” Goldberg said.
Christopher Rushe is a deaf Sarasota resident. At age 25 he contracted otosclerosis, slowly losing his hearing over six months.
With Rushe’s condition, he can speak, but it’s harder for him to understand. So, he uses cochlear implants.
He says communication is a two-way street
“Just because you understand me because I speak clearly, it doesn’t mean I can understand you,” Rushe said.
He says masks make communicating difficult.
“They muffle the sound, so I can hear them less from what I can get from my implants, and the ability not to be able to read a person’s lips is a huge disadvantage,” Rushe said.
McCarthy says a lot of the language is in the face.
“The grammar, voice intonation is expressed on the face, sarcasm, you know language nuances that are all on the face with facial expressions,” McCarthy said. “And when you have the majority of your face covered, it’s very challenging to get all of that across.”
So interpreters are trying clear masks.
“This enables a deaf person to actually see the lips,” McCarthy said.
But, McCarthy says they’re hard to come by as companies who offer them are backlogged and not taking orders.
Rushe and Goldberg say they just can’t wait for the pandemic to be over. But in the meantime, they’re asking people:
“Just please show some patience, some understanding, don’t dismiss if we need you to repeat something for us,” Rushe said.
The deaf community is struggling. McCarthy says even clear masks are tricky as it gets fogged up with air. But nonetheless, she says interpreters across the country are scrambling to find clear masks.
