Masks and The Deaf Community

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Deaf people have a great advantage over us who speak French, English, Zulu, Ojibwe, Japanese or any other language. Why? Sign language is a whole speech. The total body is a network of communication: mouth, chest, arms, eyes, facial expression and hands.

I’m an outsider, but I think the pandemic affected that network. How are they coping, trying to speak with the masks on? Eyes must be working overtime, to compensate the obstruction.

Eyes play an important role as traffic lights, but how the mouth moves determines vehicles: trucks, cars, buses, convertibles etc. People outside deaf culture can relate to the mouth’s importance because of the words, smile and laugh. Deaf people not only smile, but sign as well. With the mask on, they probably switch on the eyes more.

Outsiders use the mouth for swear words. When deaf people are mad, it is a whole symphony of hands, mouth and fingers. You don’t have to be deaf to understand the fury.

The Covid-19 mask is on, so there’s one instrument absent from signing. The mouth.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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