After the outbreak of COVID-19, masks have become mandatory,
causing 18 million Deaf individuals to struggle.
Because of opaque masks, Deaf individuals are unable to read lips and understand a person's expressions.
A few Deaf individuals rely on lip-reading,
some depend on both lip-reading and Sign Language
and some rely totally on Sign Language.
Becuase of masks Deaf are unable to understand.
However, ISL has not been recognised as the 23rd official language by the government.
Days before lockdown, Maha Sundaram, was born Deaf with vision loss in one eye,
and works with Union Bank of India.
Days before lockdown, when she went to the bank wearing a mask,
she found it very difficult to communicate with her colleagues.
This is because the staff did not know Sign Language.
Communicating with customers became a struggle.
The mask and humidity would fog her glasses making communication even more difficult.
She would have to write to communicate with staff and customers.
She said that, "To communicate, both the person and I had to remove our masks and this was very risky.”
Bandra resident Muskaan Chinoy - sign name - is a mother of two.
She was born Deaf to a hearing family and navigated her life by lipreading her parents lips.
During lockdown, wearing masks had become mandatory.
Muskaan would raise her voice and ask the shopkeepers to remove their masks so she could read their lips.
Muskaan said, “Most shopkeepers simply diverted me to another shop as they all were unable to understand me,"
When she went to stores, she wrote a list in english that contained tortilla chips and bathroom powder.
But shopkeepers were unable to understand written english.
Muskaan had to then Google the images after which the shopkeepers understood.
According to Muskaan, communication has become even more difficult with masks,
and she feels even more disabled now.
Around the world and in India,
the Deaf Community has been demanding governments to officially recognise Sign Language
but now they are urgently demanding the transparent masks.
Malvika Periwal (33), a Deaf individual from Kolkata who is a wedding photographer,
has also started an initiative to sell see through masks.
Mansi Shah - sign name - Head of Operations at India Signing Hands Pvt Ltd,
which runs an online news channel and provides accessibility to the Deaf said,
"The Health Ministry has issued guideline for masks in India.
However, since they have issued no guidelines about transparent masks, the Deaf Community continue to struggle."
Mansi said that all hearing individuals must learn basic ISL, so they can communicate with the Deaf.
ISL will help during the lockdown and even after.