The Unheard Struggle: Being Deaf During a Pandemic

Navigating a pandemic during perfect conditions is incredibly difficult, it puts an immense strain on physical and emotional health, completely turns around what we know to be “normal life”, and is a source of a lot of anxiety and fear, especially for those at risk. However, this anxiety is heightened when you are unable to communicate to the general population in the only way you know how, as is the case for the deaf community. During a pandemic, it’s crucial that people stay up to date on current developments and be aware of what is occurring in society, however, with an increased strain on gatherings, it’s difficult for deaf people to rely on their community to gather information and obtain the same incidental knowledge that hearing people do from snippets of conversations or news on the television or radio in the background. Deaf people also face a huge challenge when accessing information in regular media. In addition to dealing with the flood of misinformation that comes from the COVID-19 crisis, deaf people have been having a hard time accessing closed-captioned news as the majority of it has been live broadcasts. Although The Federal Communications Commission mandates television captioning, the rules are different for live broadcasts and local news. Internet live streams also do not help the situation, as the captions aren’t always accurate due to a lack of editing. These captions are often described as useless, as are the sign language interpreters at press conferences since television stations don’t always include the interpreter in the frame of the broadcast. Even the White House itself has not included an interpreter in its coronavirus briefings, despite the request of it from advocates. This lack of access to information carries into the most vulnerable place for many people during a pandemic, a hospital, as hospitals often have lost the ability to provide services that they provide during normal times, such as in-person sign language interpreters, Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), lip-reading, written communications, hand-held amplification devices, captioning or CART, or speech-to-text apps. Many hospitals even will not allow family members or visitors to enter the hospital to aid in the process, leaving deaf people alone and unable to access important information. Additionally, most doctors and nurses in hospitals now wear masks and gloves and may talk from behind a window or curtain, making them harder to understand. This also continues into everyday life as the most central aspect that deaf people use to communicate with hearing people is reading lips, which masks provide a barrier for them to do. In addition, the reliance of businesses on drive-thru options at banks, pharmacies, and restaurants makes it virtually impossible for deaf people to run basic, necessary errands without help. These barriers heighten anxiety in a time where anxiety is spiking, leaving deaf people lost and disconnected from society at a time when unity is crucial for survival.

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