Most people have stumbled upon a Bad Lip Reading at some point in their ventures on Youtube and other sites. While we can all agree that they are hilarious, most people would not stop to think about how much work really goes into lip reading, whether or not the goal is to get an accurate read. The e-Michigan Deaf and Hard of Hearing site claims that “speechreading is an art,” and this couldn’t be more true. Since the majority of the population is not deaf or hard of hearing, it is easy to take our ability to hear for granted, and often we are not prompted to imagine what it would be like not to be able to hear, nor to have to depend entirely on our sense of sight in order to communicate. The website highlights common challenges that are posed in speech reading, as well as various tips for speech reading more accurately.
Since it is election week, here is a recent Bad Lip Reading of the first Democratic Debate.
Also be sure to attend deaf poet Peter Cook’s Lecture Painting in the Air: Creativity and ASL Thursday from 6-8pm in Taylor 203, as well as his performance with Kenny Lerner called the Flying Words Project Saturday at 7pm in Sanders Auditorium. 