Face mask: Lip-reading sisters abused for lifting mask on train
Published
25 July 2020
Share
close
Share page
Copy link
About sharing
Image source, Sense
Image caption,
Mobile footage shared by a charity shows an unidentified passenger verbally abusing a deafblind woman and her sister
A 16-year-old who lifted her face mask so her sister could read her lips was verbally abused by a train passenger.
Saule Pakenaite was on the Liverpool to Southport service with sibling Karolina, 24, who had a guide dog with her.
When Saule briefly removed her covering to speak, a woman began to shout verbal abuse, despite the sisters explaining Karolina was registered as deafblind.
Disability charity Sense called for more awareness of face mask rules.
Mobile footage shows the woman refusing to accept the sisters’ explanation that Ms Pakenaite is hard of hearing and visually impaired.
She goes on to question whether she is actually disabled after she is able to respond to her comments.
Saule Pakenaite can be heard explaining that her sister, who has Usher syndrome, is deafblind and says: "There’s a spectrum… You don’t know what you’re talking about."
The exchange continues until another passenger intervenes.
Speaking after the [...]