I just wish someone put serious effort into a microphone that worked with a mask so people wearing masks were easier to understand.
There are a lot of people who speak at conferences who still wear masks. I get it, even if you weren't worried about COVID, in the pre-COVID times a lot of people were out for a week after going to a conference / convention because of all the germs being passed around.
But, even with professional speakers and professional microphones, the audio just sounds muddy when the speaker is wearing a mask.
If they're up on a stage by themselves speaking, and no one is within 10 meters from them, as most public speaking scenarios are, then why the fuck are they still wearing a mask? Take it off you unprofessional fuck.
Some people have hearing or cognitive impairments and use lip reading to understand people speaking at conferences. Ironically, wearing a mask during a conference speaking event is ableist