Stories for lipreaders – new website launched

A group of Hampshire lipreading tutors, lipreaders and techno-wizards has joined forces with local writers to develop an exciting new website, which uses short stories to help people with hearing loss.

‘Stories for Lipreading‘ is a new, free website for people with hearing loss, which offers the chance to practise lipreading skills and enjoy some good writing at the same time. Lipreading is a vital method of communication for people with hearing loss: it is a way of recognising lip shapes and patterns – as well as facial expressions and context – to help make sense of conversations.

‘Stories for Lipreading’ provides films of short stories being read aloud by trained lipreading tutors. There are printable sheets to accompany each film, so lipreaders can choose how much support they want in reading each story.

‘Stories for Lipreading’ is ideal for more experienced lipreaders, says Meg Finlayson, one of the lipreading tutors who helped to set up the project. ‘It can give them the chance to practise lipreading longer phrases – with the big advantage that you can pause and rewind the film if you lose the thread.  If only life was like that!’