Keeping people safe from COVID-19 limits deaf people's access. It doesn't have to be this way.

And, like many deaf and hard-of-hearing people, I was never taught sign language.So for the past 30 years — like many people with hearing loss — I’ve figured out how to hack the hearing world as a deaf person. I have a deeply understanding husband who — despite a decade of being with a stubbornly independent woman who insists she can handle things herself, thank-you-very-much — runs interference with mask-wearing folks and drives with me to the grocery store to dial the 1-800 number.Still, it’s humbling and terrifying to ask for help, and yet here I am — a deaf person in a hearing world who was taught to never ask — doing just that.I don’t want this to be misinterpreted as a call for doing away with masks; I trust the experts when they say masks are a necessary tool for preventing the spread of COVID-19.