Student advisor Annalore poses with a partially transparent mask used to communicate with students at the Royal Institute for the Deaf Mute, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium, May 4, 2020. Picture taken May 4, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As Belgium obliges people to wear face masks on public transport and recommends them elsewhere to limit the spread of the coronavirus, deaf people are calling for transparent masks to allow them to communicate with others.
For the hearing-impaired who rely on lip-reading to complement sign language, even buying an ice cream can be difficult, as shop assistants wear medical or home-made cotton masks that cover almost half the face.
