Can you read my lips?
Rachel Kolb wants to share both worlds, lipreading and sign language. The video has captions but fades them out to show how difficult it can be to lipread. It ends on a high note; when lipreading is successful it feels great to be able to communicate. A serious message is that lipreading is hard work and some people are easier to lipread than others. If you’d like to find out more about what it’s like to be a lipreader, watch the video.
Reading lips is an art, not a science. Not everyone can become a good lipreader. This is a skill which takes several years to become proficient at, with daily practice necessitating mental agility and a good knowledge of the language being lip read. It’s like drawing, with practice you will get better at it, but it’s not a skill that can be obtained within a few months with a certificate at the end of it.
121 Captions’ lipreaders have a highly developed and lifelong experience of reading other people’s lips and use this skill on a daily basis. They depend on this skill to communicate with hearing people. Commercialising this skill means hearing people can benefit in other ways than being able to communicate with a deaf person. When a person reads lips from video footage such as a TV broadcast of a football match, and delivers a transcript, this is knows as forensic lipreading.
Forensic lipreaders lipread video footage for the media, police and the courts. In the legal field, they are known as expert witness forensic lipreaders.
Our expert team of forensic lipreaders is the most respected in the UK. We have the largest and most able team of expert lipreaders in the UK who are tested on their ability to lipread and translate unheard speech with a high level of accuracy.
We have undertaken work for several years for the international media, police forces, and surveillance agencies, lipreading football games, celebrities, political debates, surveillance footage, and more.
To find out more about our lipreaders work, contact us at bookings@121captions.com
A Hearing Person’s response to “Can you read my lips?”
“Can you read my lips” is such a LOADED question from a Hearing Person. Lip- (Speech-) Reading is a SKILL. Nearly every Deaf person has been TAUGHT it at one time or another. Some Deaf people are Great at it, most are mediocre. Some are good at Speechreading but bad at talking. Some better the other way around.
What a Heaing Person is asking a Deaf person with the Question, “Can you read my lips?” is really asking, “Can I communicate with the way *I* feel is comfortable to ME. And you’ll get the rest of it because I don’t want to have to make ANY MORE EFFORT.”
Communication is a TWO-WAY Street. “Can you read my lips?” is presumed to mean, “Well you Understand ME, that’s all the effort I have to do.” It ABSOLVES me, the Hearie of all responsibility in the Communication.
“Do YOU know any Sign?” Or even “How well do you understand what I am saying?” Don’t easily pop up in the Hearing Mind. The Burden of Communication is usually on the Deaf person BY DEFAULT. OH! You read lips! My effort is now DONE! That’s HEARING PRIVILEGE.
Hearing Privilege presumes Oral Language is Superior to Sign. The burden is on the Deaf person to communicate to the Hearing person with minimal demand the other way. Any failure of a Deaf person to be understood by Hearing people means they should just try HARDER. C’mon! You can do it!!!
A Hearing person judging a Deaf person by how well they speechread or speak makes as much sense as someone judging someone by how well they ICE SKATE, especially if the dominant majority was Olympic Ice Skaters.
Imagine a Deaf person might want to ask a Hearing person, say, “Can you ride a bike?” to a Hearing Person on a Bike. “Yes,” nods the Hearie. “Good.” says the Deafie, “Let me get on the back of YOUR bike. We both need to go up to that point two miles uphill. Take me for a ride up there.” You told me you knew how to RIDE A BIKE!!! If you couldn’t take me two miles uphill, why did you tell me you could ride a bike???
No two people trying to climb up a hill together would put the Burden of Transportation on the person best able to ride up the hill to carry the other up the Hill. To presume that the question, “Can you ride a bike?” means “Can you carry me up this hill alone by your skills?” To presume that the other Biker had Olympian Biking Skills.
Yet, “Can you read my lips?” presumes the Lipreader to have Olympian Communications skills which demands NOTHING of the person asking the question.
Has it occurred to anyone that people are looking up how to use ASL (or SL)because they have just encountered their first deaf person and, even of that acquaintance should be fleeting, they want to find fast education in the interest of reaching out and making that person comfortable?
Please don’t discorage any form of interest.