Clear masks help the hard of hearing, but they could benefit everybody
Founded in 2017, ClearMask makes plastic face guards for surgeons and other medical practitioners. Now it's turning its attention to pandemic equipment. (Courtesy of ClearMask/)Allysa Dittmar still remembers the day clearly. While undergoing a hospital procedure in 2017, the doctors, suited up in their surgical gowns and masks, asked her a number of pre-op questions. But she couldn’t understand their words or give them answers. Dittmar is deaf and relies on lip reading, sign language, and other visual cues to communicate. The interpreter for the hospital never showed up due to a clerical error. Eventually, the medical staff just stopped trying to talk to her, and instead moved her body around for her as if she were a doll. It was dehumanizing and disorienting, she recalls. Dittmar’s experience might ring familiar to others. Close to 15 percent of the adult US population reports some difficulty hearing—an issue that’s gotten little...