Summary reader response draft 1

The article titled "Innovative Face Mask Breaks Inclusivity Barriers'' depicts the invention of 'Helloface', a 3-ply structure that is a novel transparent replacement for Type IIR EN14683 medical face masks that are made by Dean Ezekiel (University of Hertfordshire, n.d.). According to (University of Hertfordshire, n.d.), the inspiration of the ‘Helloface’ mask came from his wife who is partially deaf and relies on lip-reading in order to understand the person she is talking to if she could not hear the person. As such, with the importance of having access to communication via lip reading and facial expressions and in addition to tackling the outbreak of Covid19, ‘Helloface’ mask was invented in hopes to solve the issue of communication during the pandemic. Currently, there are two types of ‘Helloface’ masks available to the market namely the ‘transparent medical face mask’ that is only to be used once and the other ‘P3 half mask respirator’ that is reusable for up to 30 times. 

With the technology and design behind the ‘Helloface’ mask, it has benefited the medical and healthcare sector with the mask being transparent and comfortable to wear. However, the cost may affect people’s choice of purchasing it.

The ‘Helloface’ mask can be beneficial to the medical sector as it is transparent which allows the healthcare workers to communicate with the patients that have hearing disabilities. According to the University of Hertfordshire (n.d.), there are 11 millions of people in the UK that are registered as hearing-impaired or deaf. Additionally, on average, in the UK, 1 in 5 people experienced issues with hearing loss and of those, there are 151,000 of people who interact with British Sign Language (Indiegogo, n.d.). Furthermore, most masks provided to the medical personnel in the market being largely opaque masks, it blocks vital ways of communication for the hearing impaired such as lip reading and facial recognition. Therefore, with the features the ‘Helloface’ mask provides, it solve the restriction of communicating with one another with just hand signals by being transparent and clear so individuals are able to read lips and with anti-fogging glasses made along with it (Indiegogo, n.d.), users are able to communicate with one another without worrying the mask will fog up that blurs the user’s face and lips.

The other benefit of the ‘Helloface’ mask was the ability of being comfortable to wear. As the masks in the market are either unable to protect well from user’s sprays or that it is uncomfortable to wear for a prolonged period of time. According to (Esmaeilzadeh, 2022), long usage of face masks may cause negative effects such as feeling unfit, tight, itchy, and fatigued which may result in bilateral headaches. With the comfortability  ‘Helloface’ mask is able to provide, it allows the user to adjust the ear loop straps of the mask and with the addition of being made from flexible TPE material that cater to different face or head shapes and sizes (Indiegogo, n.d.), users can comfortably wear the mask.

However, the cost of the ‘Helloface’ masks are pricey in comparison to masks such as surgical masks or N95. The price for a pack of 50 disposable surgical masks for as low as $10 or a pack of 100 between $12.75 and $20 and a pack of 10 industrial N95 masks found at hardware stores can be purchased for around $20 (Nesbit, 2022). With the price of the ‘Helloface’ masks being $22 for a pack of 5 for the normal transparent medical face mask and $51 for one P3 half mask respirator (Indiegogo, n.d.), it might be a hard decision for a consumer to purchase a costly mask, let alone a person that is hearing impaired. Moreover, the usage of masks surges due to Covid19, it will not be sustainable in the long run for people to purchase an expensive mask like the ‘Helloface’. 

To conclude, the amount of evidence is sufficient to show how beneficial the ‘Helloface’ mask is to the medical and healthcare sectors. Although, the cost of the ‘Helloface’ mask might be a setback to people’s decision of purchasing it. In the end, the innovation of ‘Helloface’ masks is  a great way to solve the issues of communication with people that have hearing disabilities, and by making more improvement and adjustment to the features and cost, it would surely be used widely in the future.

References

Esmaeilzadeh, P. (2022, January 12). Public concerns and burdens associated with face mask-wearing: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. NCBI. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752171/

Indiegogo. (n.d.). Helloface: CE Marked, Clear Face Masks. Indiegogo. Retrieved from https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/helloface-ce-marked-clear-face-masks#/

Nesbit, J. (2022, January 19). How Much Do Masks Really Cost? From Cloth to KN95, Here’s a Price Breakdown. Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-masks-really-cost-cloth-174601985.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGvaudlcxOAHn4P6nyecmGlEpVZdCaoONKz616o074WoeQ-XH5dP8kHQsUESj-Wm6OLePHDWvH-IPFO1jjF-xQu8LFrGat30UG8R

University of Hertfordshire. (n.d.). Helloface Innovative Face Mask | Enterprise Zone | Uni of Herts. University of Hertfordshire. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.herts.ac.uk/enterprise-zone/news-and-case-studies/case-studies/business-incubation/innovative-face-mask-breaks-inclusivity-barriers