Author: Midwest Center on Law and the Deaf
Last updated: April 2007

• Face the deaf or hard of hearing person and be sure to have his or her attention before you begin speaking. Make sure there are no obstacles between you and the deaf person. Make sure no lights or windows are behind you;
• Maintain eye contact with the deaf or hard of hearing person;
• Speak clearly.  Do not exaggerate mouth movements;
• Give the deaf person as many visual clues as you can;
• Re-phrase rather than re-state words that are not understood by the deaf person;
• Be patient;
• Do not cover your mouth or have food or gum in your mouth.  If you have a mustache, or tend to not move your lips, an oral interpreter or CART may be necessary;
• Do not say, “Never mind” or “It’s not important;”
• If you want to make sure something is understood, ask the deaf person questions about the topics you covered. Asking “do you understand?” will not give you an accurate answer;
• Only 30% of mouth movements are clearly visible to a lip-reader (example: P/B and V/F). A skilled lip-reader will make educated guesses about the remaining 70% of what is being said. Any hearing that a deaf or hard of hearing person has will also aid in this understanding;
• Clear or unclear speech is not any indication of a person’s hearing level or hearing loss.