What is a lipspeaker?

A lipspeaker is someone specially trained to make spoken language clear and lip-readable for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

They repeat silently what a speaker says, just a few seconds behind.

Lipspeakers use finger-spelling to indicate key sounds which are difficult or impossible to lipread such as K and G, or sounds which look similar such as M, B and P.

A lipspeaker shows the tone of voice and emotion using their facial expression. They also use natural gestures to support meaning.

A big advantage of lipspeakers is how natural and effective their support is. They give high quality access to the full meaning and style of what the speaker says.

Some lipspeakers can provide lipspeaking with additional signs.

This means they will support the meaning of words using elements of British Sign Language (BSL).
This gives 2 channels of communication at the same time – English for lipreading plus signs.

This type of support can be easier for some people to follow as there are extra visual clues. It can also be less tiring for some people to use.