College student creates face masks for the deaf and hard of hearing

A college student has come up with an ingenious new face mask, specially designed to help deaf people cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a report by Lex 18 News, 21-year-old engineering student Ashley Lawrence, who is studying education for the deaf and hard-of-hearing at Eastern Kentucky University, has been in self-isolation and so she decided to work on a personal project to accommodate disabled people.

After talking to her mom about the idea, the two women set to work, using a sewing machine and their crafting skills to create face masks with clear plastic panels around the mouth. This means that the mask's wearers can still guard against the spread of infection, while also ensuring that those with hearing loss can still see their doctor’s mouths for the sake of lip-reading.

Commenting on her project in a later interview with Lex 18, Ashley stated: "I just saw that people were making masks on Facebook for everyone to have instead of the throwaway masks, and I was like, what about the deaf and hard of hearing population. We're all panicking right now and so a lot of people are just not being thought of. So, I felt like it was very important that, even at a time like this, people need to have that communication."

She continued: "We started out making them with bed sheets that we had, and luckily bed sheets are big. So we have two or three sets so we're making them out of that. Then, a couple months ago we needed plastic fabric for something. And so we have a whole roll of that and the window is only this big so having a whole roll is very helpful so luckily we haven't needed any supplies yet."

She added: "I'm not charging anything for them because I think that if you need them, then you need them and I don't think that you should have to pay for them. So we are sending them out for free whenever we have people asking for them and if they're foreign, then maybe we'll charge shipping, but other than that they're completely free."

Ashley has set up a GoFundMe to raise money for her project, so if you can, please make a donation.