A teenager was subjected to a verbal tirade after she briefly lifted her face covering on a train so her deafblind sister could read her lips.
Karolina Pakenaite, who has Usher syndrome, was travelling to Southport with her 16-year-old sister, Saule, and guide dog when they were confronted by another passenger.
Despite explaining that 24-year-old Karolina’s condition meant she was both hard of hearing and visually impaired, the woman refused to accept their explanation.
The incident was recorded on a mobile phone as they travelled on a Merseyrail train from Liverpool Central on 16 July.
The woman can be heard in the two minute-long clip questioning whether Karolina was really deafblind after she was able to respond to her comments.
“You’re taking the piss, you,” the woman tells them.
Saule responds: “Legally she is deafblind. There’s a spectrum. Google it. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
After the passenger questioned why she had moved her mask, Saule said: “So she could lip read me. What do you want?”
The woman goes on to say “deafblind my arse”, before another passenger intervenes.
The main symptoms of Usher syndrome are hearing loss and an eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, which causes night blindness and a loss of peripheral vision.
While all passengers are required to wear a face covering while on public transport, government guidance says disabled people who cannot safely wear one are exempt.
Those who provide support to disabled people who may rely on lip reading, facial expressions and clear sound for communication, are also allowed to not wear one.
Charities have now called on the government to do more to promote awareness around who is exempt from the face mask rules.
Richard Kramer, chief executive of the disability charity Sense, said his organisation had received lots of reports of disabled people being challenged for not wearing a covering.
He said: “These experiences cause distress and anxiety, and lead many disabled people to feel they have to stay at home, where they become isolated.
“We welcome the government’s introduction of ‘exemption cards’, but more must be done to raise public awareness of who is exempt from wearing face coverings, so the public are on board and disabled people feel supported.”
It comes as rules introduced on Friday made the wearing of face coverings in supermarkets and enclosed public spaces in England mandatory.