Is lip reading an effective form of communicating?
Not often. Some individuals with hearing impairments rely on lip reading for communication. For these individuals, an oral interpreter may be the best means of ensuring effective communication. A common misconception is that if a person with a hearing impairment can speak clearly he or she can also lip read effectively. Regardless of how good a person is at lip reading, there is still some guesswork. Very few individuals with hearing impairments or deafness rely completely on lip reading for important instructions. On the average, even the best lip readers only understand about 25% of what is said to them and many individuals understand far less. Lip reading can be particularly difficult in the medical setting when the vocabulary used might not be familiar. May written notes be considered an effective means of communication? This will depend on the reading level of the individual and the complexity of the information to be communicated. The reading level of many individuals with deafne
