Accustomed to lip reading, people who are deaf or hard of hearing have difficulty understanding what is being said when the other person wears a mask.

A situation that is all the more complicated in schools, but the problem is on the way to being solved with the arrival of transparent masks in schools.

REPORTAGE

"I had a lot of difficulties and I had to catch up in the evening via my comrades."

This is what Mathys' schooling looked like in June after confinement.

This high school student who suffers from a hearing disability needs to see the mouth of his interlocutor to understand.

But it's no small feat when a professor wears a mask on his nose.

"It was not easy to follow the course, I did not understand all the new words", he confirms at the microphone of Europe 1. "I lose about half of what is said, I compensate a lot with lip reading. "

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Masks that make life easier for the hearing impaired ...

But since his return to the IUT of Nantes, Mathys no longer has a problem of comprehension thanks to the arrival in schools and universities of the inclusive mask, which has the particularity of being partly transparent and allowing reading on the lips.

It must be said that as soon as he registered on Parcoursup, the new bachelor had reported his hearing problem.

The IUT then took care of the rest: "We were in contact with the disability mission, we placed the order at the beginning of July and we have just received them", explains Dominique Evros, teacher in thermal engineering. 

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... but not only

It is therefore ultimately the sense of anticipation that allowed Mathys to experience a more peaceful return to school.

But more surprisingly, he is not the only one: his classmates also appreciate the transparent mask.

"It's more pleasant," says Étienne.

"I think you need to see the teachers' faces. I feel like you can hear better with these masks because the visor is not stuck to the mouth." 

Now all that remains is to shorten the production times, which are currently around one month.

Because on the rest of the Nantes campus, the inclusive masks could not be ordered until September, once the thirty hearing-impaired students were identified.