good you could communicate--I sure would not be able to.

I just tried to fingerspell brown sugar. Didn't do too well. I think I spelled qwerty. What great story!

@eld6161, good on you for having the skill set to do that. I ran into a similar situation when shopping several months back. I had to nod apologetically for my inability to converse and move on.

“I saw a worker and asked him. But, he took out his phone and I realized he was probably deaf”

That’s great that you could communicate with him.

Many of our Grocery store workers have apps on phones that they use when asked where an item is.

The first time I encountered this was when I asked a stocker if he knew if they carried a certain brand of something. When he pulled out a phone, I thought that was a pretty brazen move by an employee, ‘ Taking a call when working!!’ Turns out he was checking to see if he had the product.

Yes, he was probably going to do the same, but I was thinking in his case it would be a way to text questions and answers first.

How wonderful for you to recognize his issue and then be able to communicate with him!

They do make masks where you can see people's mouths, but few people wear them. But they are a big help for lip readers.

We have a man who works in our meat department that is deaf. On his name tag, under his name it says hearing impaired. We have to pull our masks down to talk to him so he can read our lips.

I wish I knew ASL. So cool Eld! You inspired me to look up a quick "few words" tutorial. I have a story:

I worked in Sears Automotive right out of high school. A little boy, maybe 6 years old and his mom were signing to each other while they waited for their car repair. The little boy had ear buds on listening to music. I asked what music he liked. He said "Def Leppard"......because....you know why...he said. ☺ Yes....I replied. Excellent group!

My friend is deaf and wears hearing aids but also lip reads. She is going crazy with the mask wearing. I saw her at the farm market and said hi, behind my mask, and she just shrugged. It’s a shame.

that’s great , eld. What a wonderful skill. Made me think of this story. https://abcnews.go.com/US/15-year-sign-language-blind-deaf-man-cross/story?id=56139450

I can finger-spell, slowly, and know a few signs (thank you, Sesame Street!) but I wish I knew more. I’ve been signing at least “thank you” since April. But most of the Sesame Street words I know are from “the letter of the day is Q”. So as long as the queen is laughing quiveringly at a quick question, I’m good.

But seriously, why was the employee pulling out his phone?

Also seriously, I need a tracker-finder for the phone. Today, looking for babybel cheese, I finally asked the deli guy. He said they are in Dairy. They weren’t there, and not near the cheeses in deli. Every grocery store is different. Isn’t there a “Google maps” for store items???

I'm late deafened. Just want to take this opportunity to educate the hearing. Most people who are late deafened and are not a part of the Deaf Culture do not sign. It's an erroneous assumption made by the hearing who don't understand the many layers of deafness and hearing loss. The person in the link explains it much better than I could.

ASL Hearing Loss Misconceptions

But seriously, why was the employee pulling out his phone?

He may have been taking out his phone because some of us use an app that transcribes voice to text captions in real time.

When I ran the cash register and our hearing impaired customers came in, I simply pulled down my mask so they could lip read. Not a single one complained that I did that. They actually appreciated it.

Wildchild, very good point. I read your link.

For me, a person who has worked within the disabled community, it was easy to get that this man would most probably know ASL.

And, it was easier and quicker to communicate rather than pass a phone back and forth.

I think the purpose of my post was about me becoming even more aware of the struggles everyone is facing in their own way to be through this pandemic.

Voice to text feature, on smart phones, is very helpful in this situation, if you don't have paper & pencil. There are also apps available to covert voice and sign language.

Never thought we had it bad because we had (should) to wear masks. Not a lot of compliance in my little town and the positive cases are in the thousands now and death toll is climbing. It got into our little nursing home. Governor placing mask mandates that were ignored by a lot in the state and now they are trying to impeach him for trying to save as many lives as possible.

A mom of a recently shared a complaint that mask wearing made ballet class impossible for her non hearing daughter. She said that masks with clear panels fog up. I had a limited amount of sympathy because I believe masks help most people.

Lisa, a friend of mine teaches preschool and they wear the clear masks. Honestly I don’t know how she keeps it on through the day.

And, it was easier and quicker to communicate rather than pass a phone back and forth.

To clarify. With hearing assist caption apps the deafened person holds the phone. As the speaker speaks the words pop up on the phone in real time. No passing back and forth is necessary. There are no delays.