This brilliant college senior is making special ASL-friendly face masks for people with hearing problems

While we’re all worrying about washing our hands, buying food and socially distancing, it’s easy to forget that there are people who have it even harder than us during this pandemic. The elderly and immunocompromised are the ones that typically come to mind.

But the deaf, hard of hearing, blind and disabled seem to have slipped our memories. How are the deaf to communicate with people in face masks, unable to let others read their lips? How are the blind supposed to shop for supplies?

At least one person has been using her free time to think about this. Ashley Lawrence, a college senior from Versailles, has long worried about how those with hearing problems will be able to read lips when everyone has a mask on. After all, communication is crucial during a pandemic.

The 21-year-old explains :

“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, like everyone else, is now working from home. In the time she’s been quarantining, she’s had a lot of time to think and experiment. After discussing the idea with her mother, they got to work on their special “mouth window” face masks.

She’s already got the background experience too. Lawrence is a senior at Eastern Kentucky university who studies education for the deaf and hard of hearing

Many deaf people rely on sign language to communicate. However, many of them rely on lip-reading just as much. Particularly those with only partial deafness.

“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.”

But, we hear you ask, “Why don’t people with hearing problems just stay home and let someone else do the shopping for them?”

Well it’s not that simple. Perhaps some people with hearing problems live on their own and don’t have someone else to assist them. There are also, almost surely, some of them who are physically, perfectly capable of helping and buying supplies themselves aside from their hearing.

With these factors in mind, giving them some help can’t hurt. Ashley’s idea was simple : What about face masks, but with the mouths visible somehow? For this, transparent plastic would do the trick.

Luckily, she had all the materials she needed

“We started out making them with bed sheets that we had, and luckily bed sheets are big.”, she explains “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.”

One of the important points that Ashley stressed had to do with the straps of the masks. Placing the straps around your ears might not be so easy if you’re wearing a hearing aid.

And she isn’t charging a cent for any of them either

She’s received orders from 6 different states already but refuses to charge anything for them. She made these to help, first and foremost. Not for profit. It’s this sort of nobility and looking out for other people that we love seeing during this pandemic.

That said though, this doesn’t mean we can’t help her out. She’s set up a GofundMe page where you can send her some extra funds to help make more masks. You won’t just be helping out Ashley. You’ll be helping out a ton of people with hearing difficulties too!

No question about it, Ashley is a massive savior to many people. We commend how quickly she put a simple plan into practice in the interest of looking out for others. She is one of the countless unsung heroes of this global pandemic, and we salute her.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: [Lexington 18 News]