One in six people in the UK have hearing loss. 99% of these are people whose language is English rather than BSL (British Sign Language) for example. When deafness is profound, lipreading is a huge challenge as less than half of English sounds are actually visible or readable and many sounds are ambiguous. Captioning on telly and some apps can be helpful in quiet and controlled situations. However, such apps are next to useless in busy settings when you’re trying to communicate complex, detailed and/or subtle information – most meeting places or office environments are like this! 

Step forward professional lipspeakers! These specialists are trained to make English clearly lipreadable. They relay silently and in real time everything that others say; this work is highly skilled. When carried out well it lets allows a deaf person to participate fully in meetings, discussions and events. Read my 2019 blog about lipspeakers and their impact on me. Also the blog I co-wrote with lipspeaker, Sarah Maguire, which describes the process of adapting to profound hearing loss, the important psychological impact of having lipspeaker support and as well as – from Sarah – what it’s like to work as a lipspeaker. 

Have you ever seen a lipspeaker at work? Chances are, sadly, you probably haven’t. Why might this be the case? 

There are an estimated 900,000 people with severe or profound deafness in the UK and, wait for it... only 42 qualified working lipspeakers! 42! With this figure in mind, it is crystal clear that new training programme starting this summer is long overdue.

Although an expert lipspeaker is a conduit for communication and can on occasion be safely (kindly!) ignored  (this is usually an indication that they are doing their job really well), doing the job is extremely demanding. You The lipspeaker has have to be able to listen, hold language temporarily, and then relay it clearly while simultaneously ‘taking in’ the new flow of language. In addition, the lipspeaker must have develop the ability You need to handle many different accents, speeds and varied clarity of speech. You They also have to be a magnificent combination of calm, polite professional whilst sometimes being extremely assertive on behalf of the deaf people with whom they are working. They are self-employed and therefore need to attract and secure work on their own terms. Most of all, a lipspeaker needs to be both self-confident and sufficiently emotionally stable so to be capable of responding to a vast array of unpredictable moments in diverse work settings. 

In short, to support others who are more vulnerable, it is often the case that you need support yourself. This can come in the form of professional supervision, but also coaching conversations can be immensely helpful . 

This is why I was delighted when the training provider, Lipspeaker UK, approached Result about coaching for their new cohort of trainees. We will provide three individual sessions to each trainee during their course, appropriately spaced so to allow time to build on decisions made and to develop any new practices or habits as they learn and develop. 

What makes this coaching different is that it will be delivered by coaches who are themselves deaf lipreaders. As deaf coaches, we will bring a significantly greater depth of understanding to the sessions. 

Ronie Walters, Anna Storm and I ran an introductory online session about coaching with the new trainees. It was great to meet them and feel their enthusiasm for their new profession. Many had already worked in the D/deaf world for some time. It is already clear what a boost this new group will bring the lipspeaking profession. 

This new project shows once again the versatility of coaching. It really can support people in a huge variety of situations. Could it be what you or your organisation needs? Let’s have a chat.

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