There aren’t many bright spots when it comes to Covid 19. The death toll is enormous, the financial impact is potentially catastrophic, the fear of what lies ahead can be overwhelming. Still, for many with hearing loss, this period offers an insight into what it’s like to have equal access to spoken communication.
Many of us “manage” our hearing loss as best we can, through hearing aids and cochlear implants, through assistive listening devices, through speech reading and attention to communication strategies. I have a cochlear implant and a hearing aid. As grateful as I am for their superior technology, they’re not enough for me to participate fully in the hearing world. I employ these various devices and strategies with somewhat limited success.
But in the age of Covid, the playing field has been leveled. It is often said that we hear with our brains. It’s equally true that we hear with our eyes.
As an advocate for people with hearing loss, I attend a lot of meetings. Most have to do with disability access and most offer live CART captions as well as accommodations for other disabilities. I’m able to keep up fairly well, although the effort of reading captions during an in-person meeting gets exhausting.
These days, however, all our meetings are virtual, and many of them are captioned. See below for instructions for getting captions. With a Zoom meeting or Google Meet or any other captioned forum, an extra element is added that makes all the difference for me. These apps allow the speaker’s face to be isolated on the screen. (Click on the icon on the upper right of the app’s screen and then choose “Speaker View.”) That means that in addition to hearing the voice and reading the captions it’s very easy to read lips as well.
A good CART captioner makes the captions seem to synchronize with the spoken word. With my ears alone (plus hearing aid and cochlear implant) I miss a lot. With CART captions, the speaker’s voice actually sounds clearer and easier to understand. Am I hearing the words or am I reading them? I often can’t tell.
Add the visual element of the speaker facing you on the screen, and you’ve got triple input. Researchers call this multiple the McGurk effect, named after one of the British scientists who discovered in the 1970s that people comprehend speech better if they hear it in multiple ways. The scientists called it “hearing lips and seeing voices.” That’s why we need to see the speaker’s face clearly. A friend of mine likes to say, “Don’t speak till you see the whites of my eyes.” That is, she needs to see your lips in order to hear your voice. Adding captions to eyes and ears is an important third element. In a live gathering, adding hearing assistance in the form of a hearing loop is another way of improving the hearing experience through multiple inputs.
FaceTime also turns out to be an invaluable tool, although it doesn’t use captions. I always thought FaceTime was basically for fun, for talking to your grandkids or your boyfriend. But the McGurk effect applies here too. FaceTime isolates the speaker’s face close up. This vastly enhances the ability to speech read. So, just as with good CART captioning, if I’m on a FaceTime call, I’m not sure if I’m hearing the speaker or reading lips. The input from eyes and ears are inextricably entwined.
In this time of social distancing, masks, self-quarantine, living apart from one another – we may feel isolated. I did at first, and I wrote about it in my column Coronavirus Concerns for People with Hearing Loss. It’s not just the disease. (As we learned more, I updated that column: I Take It All Back.)
But as I’ve become more comfortable with technology, everything’s changed. Eyes, ears and brain working in sync make me feel more connected than ever.
***
To access Zoom captions: The person who initiates the meeting can either hire a CART operator to provide live captioning or can offer automatic voice recognition captions (which are generally less accurate). You, the guest at the meeting, click on “Closed Captions” on the very bottom of the Zoom screen. The captions will run just above that. You can adjust the caption size by clicking on CC and scrolling down. Sometimes “chat” interferes with the captions. If that’s happening, click on “chat” and the box with chat messages will appear on the right. You can move your whole screen to the right to get them out of sight. I know this sounds complicated but once you try it, it gets easier.
For more on the kinds of technology that are useful for people with hearing loss, especially now, the websites of both the Hearing Loss Association of America and the Center for Hearing and Communication offer good tutorials, including webinars.
****
For more about living with hearing loss, read my books, available at Amazon.com and maybe at your favorite bookstore or library. If they’re not there, ask for them.
Here’s a link to my most recent book: Smart Hearing: Strategies, Skills and Resources for Living Better with Hearing Loss.
Smart Hearing 
Thank you, Katherine! You highlighted something I have been feeling, too. I am more connected because I can see people’s faces and the whites of their eyes up close. Another advantage of on line meetings is that people all over the country and the world can attend without traveling. That’s a huge plus right now. I’ve been attending Zoom meetings and classes using the Otter app on my Apple Phone. I place the phone in front of the computer screen and read the captions. Hopefully, all the platforms will offer free captioning soon. In the meantime, HLAA and CHC are excellent sources of communication information.
LikeLike
I see many virus related TV discussion and announcements with a , signer, physically converting speech to signals for the deaf. I read the closed caption. Is signing necessary?
LikeLike
That’s not really for me to answer. You’d have to ask someone who represents the Deaf Community. But I do know that many people who grow up with ASL as a first language prefer it over captioning.
LikeLike
This is excellent advice about using Otter to get captions for uncaptioned video. Thank you!
LikeLike
Fascinating blog; it reminds me of how my two sons had to learn to read. Both severely dyslexic, they had to hear the sound and see the written word together. And I find that I can memorize something if I say it out loud, then when I’m trying to remember I hear the sound of it in my mind. The more dyslexic of my two sons had to see the word written in red pencil on a yellow pad, next to a black line drawn from the top to the bottom of the page. How people learn and understand is multidimensional. It drives me crazy that most schools for young children don’t really understand that. That you need a similar pattern to comprehend sound makes perfect sense to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is completely fascinating. And what an interesting link to the problems of hearing. Thank you for writing this.
LikeLike
I commented on today’s blog, but it said “Gratitude” at the top of the page. But you’ll understand. Great blog!
>
LikeLike
Thank you again!
LikeLike
Well written blog. Im glad to hear about the McGurk effect and how it has h Sent from my Phone 6
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Diane, thanks for commenting. We seem to have lost the end of your comment.
LikeLike
Dear K, Did you get my comment? It may have gotten lost because the headline was “Gratitude” xoL
>
LikeLike
Leslie, Yes, You can see it above.
LikeLike
Sent from my iPhone 6
>
LikeLike
You mentioned captions with Zoom and I didn’t know that was an option. Is it, or do I need to use an app?
LikeLike
Hi Beth, whoever initiates the Zoom meeting needs to have an account that allows captions. These are then automatically generated. What I was talking about are Zoom meetings where a CART provider is supplying the captions. In that case, at the bottom of the screen (click on it) you’ll see various options. One is CC, Closed Captions. Click on that to see captions. You can adjust the size of the captions in that same place.
If the Zoom organizer does not have an account using captions, try the method that Ruth Bernstein suggests in the comments above. Turn on your Otter (iPhone) or Google transcribe (Android) captions and put the phone next to the computer. The captions will appear on your phone.
I should have made this clearer!
LikeLike
Thanks, Katherine! I just downloaded Otter and will try it. My husband also has a hearing loss and had trouble with hearing the teacher on a class he’s auditing over zoom. I’ll suggest that he try Otter too.
LikeLike
Great. Just remember that to get live captions you have to be connected to the internet.
LikeLike
Clear masks? They have not implemented in states yet, only in Maryland that I know of… appreciate feedbacks on this at a time of uncertainty where the hearing loss community relies on lip reading and are NOT fluent in signing?
LikeLike
I’ll post a link from a Johns Hopkins article about clear masks. Have to find it first.
LikeLike
Great article, Katherine – I always enjoys your insights! I’ve been curious about trying Otter while listening in on Skype meetings, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Seeing Ruth’s reply above just motivated me to do it! Also, Regarding masks, I’m familiar with this company: https://safenclear.com/ But like all PPE suppliers, they’re a bit backlogged right now.
LikeLike
Hi Michelle! So good to hear from you. I think see-through medical masks may be one of the positive effects of Covid. We all realize now how hard it is to understand someone wearing a medical mask. The circumstances are usually crucial. So let’s get them into every hospital and medical center. I hope you and yours are safe and well.
LikeLike
I think it’s great that we have remote CART services that can help the listeners understand easier and make the speaker’s voice clearer. I have seen my son having classes online with his tutors and I would think that having captions for the tutorials can really help him understand better especially since the speaker might not sound very clear sometimes due to connection problems. I would imagine that in lieu of the COVID 19 pandemic, a lot of schools will be needing the help of online CART services to help their students learn better.
LikeLike
Thanks for connecting this to the schools. I agree that CART can be immensely helpful with online learning.
LikeLike