Lipread : About Us

About Lipread

The person behind this venture is Dr Mary Allen.

Dr Allen worked 17 years in the Public Service, both State and Federal governments, before taking up the world of academia. As a result of many years study at the University of South Australia, Mary graduated with: Bachelor of Arts (Liberal Studies) (majoring in Information Management and Italian Studies); Honours degree of Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies); and the final award - Doctor of Philosophy (Education).

The Doctoral research thesis topic was "Learning to Lipread with Computers in Open Learning Environments". As part of the research, Dr Allen developed this CD-ROM for learning lipreading from home computers. The CD-ROM is an interactive multimedia software, aimed at adults with acquired hearing loss. To assess the effectiveness of this software, it was trialled on 38 postlingual deafened adults over a period of 10 weeks doing one lesson a week. It was found from the pre versus post test results that the CD-ROM is effective and that people can benefit from it. This software program is extremely useful to people who can't access lipreading classes due to physical constraints or who live in remote areas. Lipreading won't solve all communication problems, as one is not able to lipread everything, but it can aid the communication process.

Dr Allen has presented several papers on her research at International and National Conferences in the USA, UK, and Australia.

Dr Allen is keen in promoting lipreading, as it is her belief that it can help people with a hearing loss to understand speech easier. Mary herself has a severe hearing loss, due to maternal rubella, and uses lipreading. Dr Allen lipreads very well, and has won a few awards in the National Better Hearing Lipreading Competitions :- notably, being 1st place in 2000, 3rd in 2001 and 2007 (equal third), as well as placing 1st in State 7 times.

At the present time, Dr Allen is teaching lipreading to a class of hard of hearing adults; at the local deaf society, using the computers as the teaching tool and the software program for the lessons.

In 2008, Dr Allen started research in communication access for people who for some reason are unable to use their voice - due to a tracheostomy for example. Places like Intensive Care Units within Public and Private hospitals would have quite a few patients with a tracheostomy or even in specialised wards (eg Ear, Nose, Throat) with similar problem, all which prevent them from using their voice. How do they then communicate? and it becomes even more problematic if for some reason the patient is not able to use their hands to write or to make sign of their need. This is a very good example when a good lipreader could be employed to facilitate communication between patients and the hospital staff, specialists, and of course with their family also. If you would like to know more about this, or have information to give, please feel free to email me - drallen@lipread.com.au