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Researchers who lip read
A deaf postgraduate researcher who lip reads spoke about the impact of a new vocabulary which came with their research:
‘Discussions with my supervisor have been difficult because of the huge amount of technical and superior language he uses. This is probably a problem for any postgraduate researcher who is starting work in a new field and doesn't understand all the technical terms. But for a deaf researcher with a more limited vocabulary it can be a huge barrier to their understanding of the project.
Deaf postgraduate researcher
I have a very wide vocabulary, but people who are high up in academia ... will use long words where I would use short ones. When they are doing this all the time in every sentence, it can take me ages to realise what they are saying because I am just not used to these words being used. It is hard to describe, but this is the problem I have had with my supervisor. He talks like this all the time; I'm not going to ask him to change the way he talks.’




