Man with hearing loss could not communicate with paramedics in masks – now he's making sure others don't have the same problem

The use of protective masks worn by healthcare workers is more important than ever, however without other effective communication tools, masks can alienate the 48 million people in America who live with hearing loss - many of whom rely on lip-reading to help with communication. Disability and hearing loss advocate Jack Clevenger learned this the hard way recently when he found himself unable to communicate with masked paramedics trying to help him during a medical emergency at his home. Behind their masks, paramedics ran through a slew of urgent questions about his medical history and the symptoms he was experiencing. Partially conscious, without his cochlear implant processor on, and unable to see their mouths to lip-read, Clevenger was left completely unable to understand paramedics. After helping calm his wife, she was able to help with communication. He was eventually cleared and told that what he was dealing with was severe dehydration. The next day he emailed the Prescott Arizona fire chief who promptly arranged for all paramedics in their city to be required to have live dictation captioning tools on their iPads.

Video Transcript

JACK CEVENGER: I've been hard of hearing all my life since one month of age. There's over 48 million people in the United States that have hearing loss.

Yeah can't. You try to compensate for the limitations of lip reading with context of the conversation, body language. Because hearing aids do not do the job. All those things have to be learned the hard way.

It was early in the morning, and my wife was still asleep. I went to try to drink some water. And then I collapsed. But then that was when my wife was looking for me. When I wasn't getting any better, I told her, I think you better call 9-1-1.

So they came over. I was really having a difficult time to understand what the paramedic was saying, because of the mask that they wear to protect themselves. And couldn't lip read. I didn't have my cochlear implant processor on. Partially I was partially conscious. My wife began to help me communicate with the paramedic. And it was determined that I was OK. I had severe dehydration.

First responders have a means to be able to communicate, by being able to turn on the captioning on their iPads. That could have been able to help me understand what the paramedics were saying, even the mask on.

We really have a very neat Fire Chief in the city of Prescott. He responded the very same day that I wrote to him and said, Jack, what can we we do? I said, it would really be neat if the paramedics could have on their tablets the captioning app, so you can communicate with them. It And it's not just about interpreters. Because that's the common thought. But for the 98% of the people that have hearing loss, they don't know sign language. He told the paramedics, I want you to get this on your iPads.

I thought it was so neat, being able to have better communication between those with hearing and those with hearing. It goes two ways. People with telling loss you not have a history of being assertive. If there's been a lack of communication, the just simply withdraw and walk away. What else could they do?

Try to be proactive in helping people to be able to with you. So like in my case, with the paramedics, I could have just said, that's just what it is. There's nothing I could do about it No! Something can be done about it, and it s being done.