Progress On Face Masks Could Be “New Dawn For Deaf Children”
A press release:
The National Deaf Children’s Society has welcomed the Government’s announcement that face masks will no longer be recommended anywhere in school for pupils in England from Monday, May 17th. They will also not be recommended for staff in classrooms.
Ian Noon, Head of Policy at the National Deaf Children’s Society, said:
“Today’s announcement will mean thousands of deaf children and young people can breathe a huge sigh of relief. For more than a year, they’ve struggled against isolation, loneliness and inaccessible online lessons, only to be hit with a whole new set of challenges caused by face masks when they returned to school.
“Public health must always be the priority, but deaf young people have repeatedly told us that face masks left them seriously struggling to socialise, understand their teacher and maintain their mental health during what was an extremely challenging period of their lives.
“Taking face masks out of classrooms and highlighting the benefits of transparent ones are both signs of real progress. Hopefully this heralds a new dawn for deaf children and young people, where they can be confident that their needs will now be considered whenever major decisions are made.”
Same Difference 
As an older person with hearing difficulties I fully understand the problems for children. Face masks ‘mask ‘ facial expressions and lip movements. The government allows certain people to Not wear masks due to some medical issues I.e. asthma/breathing difficulties. However the masking of lips and mouths by masks and the resulting struggle to understand speech by those with hearing difficulties has not been addressed ! I have to ask people to remove their mask briefly, whilst staying socially distanced, to understand them. Also the greater the background noise such as on public transport makes it much worse. I never realised how much I relied on lip reading and facial expressions my whole life until masks became the norm!