This College Student Created Face Masks For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing and My Heart is Full
Leave it to a college student to come up with the BEST idea I’ve heard of during this time of doom and gloom. She has developed a Face Mask for people that are deaf or hard of hearing, so they can still read the lips of people wearing the masks.
Ashley Lawrence is a student at Eastern Kentucky University, where she is majoring in education for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Having such a love for this community, she saw a need that she could fill, so she took it upon herself to do it!
I just saw that people were making masks on Facebook for everyone to have instead of the throwaway masks, and I was like, what about the deaf and hard of hearing population?
Ashley Lawrence
I felt like there was a huge population that was being looked over — We’re all panicking right now and so a lot of people are just not being thought of. So, I felt like it was very important that, even at a time like this, people need to have that communication.
Ashley Lawrence
Ashley got with her mom, they put their heads together, and came up with the idea to have face masks with plastic fabric used in the middle, so you can still see the mouths of people when they talk!
We started out making them with bed sheets that we had, and luckily bed sheets are big. So we have two or three sets so we’re making them out of that. Then, a couple months ago we needed plastic fabric for something. And so we have a whole roll of that and the window is only this big so having a whole roll is very helpful so luckily we haven’t needed any supplies yet.
Ashley Lawrence
Get this — Ashley is making these masks FREE OF CHARGE for people in the deaf and hard of hearing community! I’m not crying, you are.
I’m not charging anything for them because I think that if you need them, then you need them and I don’t think that you should have to pay for them. — So we are sending them out for free whenever we have people asking for them and if they’re foreign, then maybe we’ll charge shipping, but other than that they’re completely free.
Ashley Lawrence
Y’all. Ashley has a GoFundMe page, to help with the costs of making these face masks. I don’t know that I’ve seen a more worthy cause. In fact, I’m on my way to donate right now!
If we can even just help Ashley cover shipping on these face masks, we are doing our part!
Thank you, Ashley, for being so AWESOME and such an inspiration, during this time when we ALL need a bit of happiness.
Hi! This is such a great idea!! I’m actually hard of hearing and rely on lip reading heavily. I just found out my work will be wearing masks soon, these would be so helpful to me, is there a way I can order some.
Im not being mean and maybe I have misunderstood.. but wouldnt everyone have to wear one so deaf people can lip read… Deaf people wouldnt need to wear one…
Great Idea though!
Everyone needs to wear a mask … people who are asymptomatic (not experiencing any symptoms) but who actually have contracted the virus can spread it without them even knowing. If everyone wears a mask, everyone is protecting everyone else. “I protect you, you protect me.”
These masks are not for the deaf to wear … it is so that deaf people can read the lips of anyone who is speaking.