She reads the message with a small smile. At least people are spreading the word about her deafness. She tries not to think about 'if she were Hearing', and lowers her pencil to her paper.

Reading lips is tricky. I can catch some words but everyone has different mouths and ways of speaking. American Sign Language is easier because if it has any dialectal changes they're pretty easy to figure out.

She looks up at him, then hesitates and adds, Can you sign? It doesn't seem likely if he hasn't yet, but it doesn't hurt to ask, she thinks.