A WOMAN with a hearing impairment who relies on lip-reading has spoken of her struggles with anxiety due to not being able to understand people wearing face coverings.

Rebecca Kruse-Shorter, 35, has been hearing impaired since she was three years old and relies on lip-reading during her day-to-day life.

However, since wearing face coverings became mandatory to tackle the spread of coronavirus, Rebecca has found it difficult to understand people in shops, in healthcare settings, or in public.

She said: "For the past year I have struggled with accessing society and the community due to being unable to understand people.

"Many people are understanding and will remove their masks even though I won’t ask them to.

"But there’s been occasions where I have been ignored, and refused service as well as being shouted at."

Rebecca, who is a newspaper deliverer, said she has not experienced any issues in regards to face masks during her paper round as she does not tend to run into anyone early in the morning.

However, she said: "This is one of the reasons why the job is ideal for me at the moment, as I don’t have the confidence to apply for any customer facing jobs while people are wearing face masks."

On Monday, the Government announced the easing of lockdown restrictions across the country which means face coverings are no longer mandatory in pubs, shops, gyms and cinemas.

But as many places of work including shops and restaurants will still encourage the use of wearing face masks, Rebecca is calling on residents to respect people with hearing impairments.

Rebecca, who lives in Colchester, said: "Despite the easing of restrictions, many shops and restaurants will continue to encourage the use of masks, with staff still wearing them.

"Many deaf people will refuse to ask someone to lower their masks to talk, out of fear that they will be reprimanded for asking.

"I want to raise awareness about this issue because it has been spoken about so little.

"We have been forgotten about."

If you have concerns regarding hearing or want to learn more visit the British Deaf Association's website via bda.org.uk.