Lipreading

1
Lipreading

• Is it effective?

2
Not all speech is visible on the lips

• Some letters, words and phrases look alike. M,
  B, P use the same lip positioning so Man, Ban,
  Pan all look alike. Mama looks like Papa on the
  lips.
• The lip position for V, is the same as for F,
  and the position for D, is the same as for T. The
  word Paper looks like Baby. No new taxes and Go
  to Texas look alike.

3
Speech formed in the throat is not visible on the
lips

• Many vowels and some consonants are formed in
  the throat A, E, I, U, E,G, K, H, R, X, Y
• Entire words can be formed in the throat- Egg,
  Key.

4
Speed of muscle movement is too fast.

• More than 200 muscle movements per second occur
  when a person is speaking. The eyes cannot see
  that many movements/second.

5
Physical and Environmental Factors Interfere

• You must be able to see the speakers face and
  mouth clearly.
• Sometimes a speaker is too far away.
• The speaker may walk around, or turn head away.
• The speaker might cover their mouth with their
  hand or a tissue.

6
Lighting affects lipreading

• The lighting could be too dim, or too bright.
• The face could be in shadow if a person is
  standing in front of a bright light.

7
Group Discussions are a Problem

• Locating the speaker is difficult.
• People may be talking very quickly, making
  comments or responses and its hard to follow.
• Sometimes many people talk at once.

8
Public Address Systems

• Announcements over public address systems cannot
  be lipread.
• Many times cancellations or schedule changes are
  announced this way.

9
Speech can be distorted.

• Chewing gum, cigarettes, piercings,
• Lip shape and size
• Over enunciation
• Facial hair
• Limited mouth movement

10
Lipreading causes fatigue

• It is difficult to stay visually focused and
  concentrate that hard for extended periods of
  time. You cant blink or you miss something

11
Voice quality cannot be seen.

• Voice inflection and intonation provide subtle
  meaning that enhances the words we use. It is
  impossible to lipread this subtle meaning.

12
Language Fluency is needed.

• One must have a very good understanding of the
  vocabulary(Deaf people often dont know all the
  words hearing people use.)
• One must understand the context/topic of the
  conversation well and be able to anticipate the
  likely words phrases.

13
Prior hearing is helpful

• If a person was hearing they will have greater
  fluency with English language. It will be easier
  for him to lipread.
• If a person uses a hearing aid it may give some
  auditory clues to help in lipreading.

14
Lipreading is not effective for most Deaf People

• The best lipreaders often catch about 25 of the
  information.
• Good lipreaders must use context clues and fill
  in the gaps.
• Lipreading is the most flawed of all the
  communication options, it leaves most deaf people
  at a severe disadvantage in gathering information.