THE WHEEL EXISTS:

Masks can obscure a smile, muffle a voice, and make lip reading impossible.

But those are minor obstacles to human interaction, says Lindsay Yazzolino, who is blind.

"It's interesting to me how face-seeing is considered to be the be-all and end-all in so many contexts," she says.

That's why Yazzolino says she is puzzled by the current debate over masks in the classroom.

Some parents express worry that masks might interfere with children's ability to learn or to socialize. Other parents fear that unmasking will lead to more COVID-19 cases.

Amid the debate, a small but growing body of research is offering hints that masks do not have a significant impact on speech or social skills.

Some of that research involves people like Yazzolino, who are blind. Their ability to master language and social skills shows that the human brain is really good at finding a way to communicate.

Yazzolino, an accessible-technology consultant, has been blind since birth. But she went to school with sighted kids.

"I always had a really great experience in school," she says. "I had a lot of really supportive teachers, I was reading at an early age. I loved math and science."

She relied on braille to read and write. And it was hard for her to get some course materials in that format.

But social interactions were never a problem, she says.

"You hear emotion in people's voices, so I definitely used that as a cue," she says. "And I talk to people."

Yazzolino's experience is unsurprising, scientists say, because the human brain is really good at finding a way to communicate.

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