News: Taking a Peek into Lip Reading Classes in Ayr

Following the launch of the new Access Panel on 26 January, Disability Equality Scotland dived into exploring Ayrshire’s accessibility groups. We interviewed Frances Brown – a user representative in Sensory Impaired Support Group in Ayrshire. She’s also a new member of the South Ayrshire Access Panel. Frances attends lip reading classes to improve her communication after her hearing has deteriorated, prompting her to use hearing aids. Three lip reading classes currently take place in three towns across Ayrshire. One in Goldstone in the East, one in Largs in the North, and one in the Ayr Hospital in the South.

Lip reading sessions are run by Sensory Impaired Support Group of Ayrshire with their project manager Dorothy as a trainer. Being a retired audiologist, she understands hearing disorders on a deeply professional level. Her experience shows up everywhere in her methods of teaching vital lip reading techniques, which are indispensable for disabled people.

Frances describes a typical class consisting of two one-hour sessions. During the first exercise, they begin with focusing on speech movements. This often proves to be very challenging because many words sound similar even if they’re spelled differently.  Frances shares the following example: ‘Last month, we were looking at words like “bow”, “low”, “hole”, “whole”. The spelling is completely different, but the speech movements are quite the same because of the “o.”’ Next, Dorothy hands out a worksheet with sentences containing that specific lip movement. These papers even make their way to students’ homes where they practise learned material on their families.

To find out more, visit: www.accesspanel.scot/just-say-it-again-frances-brown-on-lip-reading-classes-hearing-aid-and-why-raising-your-voice-is-unhelpful/