Many persons with hearing loss require an unobstructed view of the face to augment the verbal communication. Due to the difficulties in understanding and being understood caused by widespread use of opaque face masks which obscure the face relied , the use of clear masks has been encouraged.

There have been limitations on the widespread adoption of clear masks, for a number of reasons including a lack of public awareness of the public and resolution. As well, masks must meet medical grade regulations for use in medical settings, which few or virtually no clear masks met at the outset of the pandemic. Such developments take time and may well occur in the future.

Meanwhile, CHHA-BC has undertaken to alert government and medical officials about this issue and has received and collected information as noted below. Our role in sharing this information is to inform consumers about them; we cannot vouch for particular products.

CHHA National has developed a partnership with Como Foundation to provide MyAccessMask, which are clear masks.  For more information, go to www.shop.chha.ca. CHHA National also runs the Smile campaign profiling persons wearing masks to encourage their use in the population.

Wavefront Centre of Communication Accessibility sells clear face shields by Tinkerine for more information go to www.wavefrontcentre.ca/tinkerine-face-mask-clear/.

Face shields may also be found in various commercial outlets as well as on www.packrightshield.com. As well there are various outlets providing clear masks including ClearMask™  www.theclearmask.com; HMCare  www.hmcare.ch