Sound & Communications: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to affect our lives. As we pause to take stock and try to get on with the new norms, several previously little-noticed fac-tors have begun to emerge. One example centers on the detrimental consequences, with respect to speech intelligibility, of wearing a face mask.
13 comments:
Working in food service, I occasionally communicate with customers 6 feet apart with masks. I have definitely experienced, like many people, how masks make it harder to hear as words get muffled. But I never noticed how my subconscious lip-reads, and how that is contributing to my lack of comprehension. I thought that the experiment conducted in this research was especially interesting as it not only tested how different masks affect speech comprehension but also what materials and how the masks are composed (number of layers). It helped see what masks would give the most protection with the most clarity in conversations. I also liked how they included how hearing loss with age can affect this comprehension. As we age we lose access to hearing certain frequencies. I wish that the article covered more on Covid transmission of the different masks, as I think that though word comprehension is important, safety comes first.
I have noticed that while wearing a mask I have found it increasingly more difficult to communicate with others as well as comprehend others communicating towards me. I don't think there is an easy solution to this issue. Not just communication through sound but facial expressions too. I often find myself smiling at people under my mask and realizing that they cannot see what I am doing. I agree with Hikari safety comes first and even though sometimes it is difficult I would much rather wear a mask than risk infecting myself or others. I am very fortunate in that I have a perfect hearing but those suffering from hearing loss are especially having a difficult time with masks. I've seen clear masks that often work in theory but not in execution. I think that there is a lot of potential for innovation in the mask world to aid better communication.
To be honest, the science in this article goes a bit over my head, but I think its something very important to think about. I consciously read lips to help with staying focused and understanding what other people are saying, and I immediately noticed my inability to understand others clearly when we all started wearing masks. I know that face visibility also causes a huge barrier to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Safety is of the utmost importance right now, especially with Covid spikes around the world creeping back up to what they were in June or July, but there also needs to be more moves that create safe and inclusive PPE. I’ve seen masks that have windows in them for visibility, and I’d be interested in seeing where those masks landed on these audio charts. Also, similar to Hikari and Kaisa, I think seeing a crossover chart of speech perceptibility and safety from droplet transmission would be fascinating and very useful to leading us to a safe and inclusive option.
This issue is something that I have had to deal with more and more. Working in emergency services, we wear masks all the time. From simple surgical masks, to P100 respirators, all the way to SCBAs. Wear surgical masks on calls has really shown how hard it is to hear through them. Often we are dealing with people who are older and often have a hard time hearing to begin with. Wearing the masks only makes things worse in this sense. That being said, there really isn't a better option in our line of work. We have to be wearing medical grade masks both to protect ourselves and the people around us. I wish there was a better way, but there doesn't seem like there is. It isn't feasible to wear a mask like an SCBA face piece which contains a microphone and speaker on every call, they just weigh too much and are too clunky to wear all the time.
As a cashier at a grocery store, I have had a similar issue where many older people cannot hear me as the masks have inhibited them from hearing me. Although I do not believe I should remove my mask to talk to them, I think these results show that we should be looking at trying to help older people and people with hearing issues understand people who wear masks better. The results essentially show us that most of our high frequencies are cut off when we talk with a mask. This definitely could be an issue for public speaking events as it will make it much more difficult for everyone to hear the speaker. Of course, we might be able to solve some of the issues by equalizing their voice but that won’t solve the whole issue. Also, I think even if you are speaking in front of people, you should be wearing a mask. I think there could be an easy solution to this issue but I’m not quite sure what it would be.
It is really interesting to read about research that directly affects my daily life! With restaurants reopening, it has been something a personal struggle to not only hear, but also comprehend what servers are saying (especially when they are on the other side of a plexiglass divider). I never knew how important to comprehension that lip reading is! However, I recall that in a past design class, we were taught that if the audience cannot see a performer, they will also find it difficult to hear them, which I have always found to be an interesting phenomenon. Wearing masks are essential to surviving the pandemic by reducing transmission of the coronavirus between community members, and I am not suggesting that we stop wearing them. However, I certainly think that we should also be looking at ways to reduce the accessibility roadblocks that covering our faces has created, which is exactly what this research is trying to achieve.
It is really interesting to read about research that directly affects my daily life! With restaurants reopening, it has been something a personal struggle to not only hear, but also comprehend what servers are saying (especially when they are on the other side of a plexiglass divider). I never knew how important to comprehension that lip reading is! However, I recall that in a past design class, we were taught that if the audience cannot see a performer, they will also find it difficult to hear them, which I have always found to be an interesting phenomenon. Wearing masks are essential to surviving the pandemic by reducing transmission of the coronavirus between community members, and I am not suggesting that we stop wearing them. However, I certainly think that we should also be looking at ways to reduce the accessibility roadblocks that covering our faces has created, which is exactly what this research is trying to achieve.
As a person whose interests lie mainly in the scientific realm, it was interesting to see this article take an experimental approach to a problem that must inevitably be unfolding across the country right now. Reopening businesses of course means face masks, but also sometimes another layer of protection such as a polycarbonate sheet or the like. Taking away subconscious and conscious lip reading (as is mentioned briefly in the article), though, I think is the greatest challenge that comes with this issue. How your brain forms words in your head implicitly relies on you being able to see what the other person is saying. Thus, I find it the most interesting that the face shield type of covering allows this to happen, but also seems to provide a relatively stable drop off at higher frequencies. They would seem like the best choice in this scenario, but they are very bulky and, as noted in the article, may not do well with actually preventing the transmission of virus droplets. I think that at the end of the day, we may just have to end up adjusting our speech patterns and the way that we speak in general in order to accommodate those who might have more trouble hearing, though the feasibility of that is yet to be seen.
This is fascinating. The results are also important in the world of live theatre. With several productions coming back with actors in masks and shields, knowing this information can help a sound person adjust microphones and sound output better. As the “average 40 year old person”, (I’ll be 45 in March) this article hit right at home with me and now I understand why I have a harder time understanding some things more than others. I grew up with things like the walkman and listening to music with headphones. I also attended a lot of rock concerts and always stood near the speakers. Looking back that was probably a bad idea and it had affected my hearing for sure. Knowing more of this information as presented in this article will help me also decide what mask to wear when I need to be in front of people talking to them so that they can understand me better, even if they are half my age and have better hearing.
This article is significant on multiple levels. On the one hand, the impairment of speech has consequences in our day to day lives. As mentioned in the article, those with hearing issues have struggled to even go out during these times, because they find themselves unable to efficiently communicate and understand with others. Not being able to read lips is also detrimental, but I never knew how much before this article. Masks are, of course, a necessity for our current times, but seeing one of the inevitable consequences of that need is an interesting perspective. On the other side of the coin, this article also has consequences for theater. Especially for shows that lack head mics, projection and the average skills of communication are needed for the show to work properly. There isn't a good solution to this problem, since using head mics would probably encounter the same difficulties, and putting them inside the mask not only opens the possibility of spreading COVID, but also runs into the issue of cloth rubbing against it and ruining the quality. This will be another challenge for theater moving forward as we reopen, but I'm sure it will be another challenge that will have a creative solution.
Trying to talk to other people with masks on definitely makes understanding them more difficult at times, especially if you’re six feet apart like you’re supposed to be. Even more so when the environment is noisy or if there is machinery running. Like some other people have mentioned, I’ve never really considered how much lip reading plays into comprehension of what someone else is saying. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who are deaf and relied on lip reading to understand people. For our Advanced Fabrication 2 class, Ben Carter has been wearing face masks with a clear plastic shield over the mouth part to try and make it easier for us to understand what he’s saying to us. To be fair, I’m not completely sure if it’s actually an effective way to help us hear him because even still it gets tricky once the vacuum hood powers on or if anything else starts moving. This problem is probably even worse for people in professions that require them to wear more than just one mask and obscures their speaking even more.
This is for sure an issue that people have been running into ever since masks became the norm, not only because of muffled speech but also because of the hiding of facial expressions. I work with groups of children for my job, and find myself having to raise my voice much more than I would prefer to just so that I can be heard clearly in a noisy environment. I’ve also noticed how much more I need to express emotions verbally or adding laughter to make it clear that statements are a joke. I thought looking at the science behind the loss of sound with different masks was definitely an interesting perspective to go with! I do agree with other commenters though, that as frustrating as it is to have to modulate our voices and behaviors, it’s obviously still important to wear masks anyway and put up with it so that we can avoid spreading covid as much as possible.
Although most of these numbers mean absolutely nothing to me, I have spent enough time staring at GarageBand to know that a few decibels off in the described ranges makes a huge difference. I have certainly noticed not only other people having trouble hearing my already shy voice, but I am shit out of luck when it comes to understanding other people. This is actually somewhat comforting knowing that I'm not just going deaf, and there is in fact a noticeable drop off in sound behind face masks. As the pandemic rages on, I wouldn't be surprised to see masks with the intention of more audible speech be produced. That is assuming, of course, that we really are in this situation for a considerable enough amount of time that something like that becomes entirely necessary. Hopefully, I'll just be able to go back to not understanding people anyway and not have to pile that on with masks muffling their voices further.
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